Yahoo Finance The Kinks guitarist urges Elon Musk to remove Twitter ‘sensitive content’ warning
The lead guitarist of the rock band The Kinks has pleaded with billionaire Elon Musk to stop censoring the band’s name after Twitter automatically hid its posts.
Videos shared by band members have been hidden behind warnings that they include “potentially sensitive content”, as Twitter’s technology appeared to take exception to the band’s name.
Social media users are forced to bypass a warning banner that is posted over videos from YouTube or TikTok.
Dave Davies, the 76-year-old guitarist on tracks such as Waterloo Sunset, posted a message to Twitter’s billionaire owner on Twitter, saying: “Dear Elon Musk, would Twitter please stop putting warnings over everything from ‘the Kinks’. We are just trying to promote our Kinks music.”
The social network’s technology censored multiple posts from the band, apparently confusing the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band with websites related to fetishism or unusual sexual preferences.
Appeals directly to Mr Musk over the functioning of Twitter have become common since he took over Twitter in a $44bn deal last year.
Dear @elonmusk would @Twitter please stop putting warnings on everything from ‘the Kinks’. We are just trying to promote our Kinks music @TheKinks #thekinks60 pic.twitter.com/1sXC4CK4d4
— Dave Davies (@davedavieskinks) February 15, 2023
The billionaire promptly proceeded to sack more than half the company’s staff in a bid to slash costs. Since then, functions of the social network have gone increasingly awry as the billionaire tinkers with its technology.
Over the weekend, Twitter began telling some users they had been reaching their daily Tweet limit, preventing them from sending any more posts.
Later, Twitter users found their timelines flooded solely with posts from Mr Musk, after the billionaire reportedly asked engineers at the company to boost the visibility of one of his Tweets.
Mr Musk appeared to admit to the bug, saying on Monday: “Please stay tuned while we make adjustments to the uh … ‘ algorithm’.”
Please stay tuned while we make adjustments to the uh .… “algorithm”
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 14, 2023
A self-proclaimed free speech absolutist, Mr Musk accused Twitter’s former management of pandering to liberal causes and blocking conservative accounts.
The 51-year-old has made sweeping changes to Twitter’s moderation efforts, ending permanent bans on hundreds of previously blocked accounts, including former US President Donald Trump.
However, Mr Musk himself has faced accusations of censorship. At one stage he banned multiple journalists who had Tweeted links to a website sharing the location of Mr Musk’s private jet. The social network also threatened to block users from sharing links to rivals, before u-turning on the policy.
