The Importance of Reasonable Exchange of Ideas

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Even some of the people who worked at Twitter were happy about the idea of a new, hard-core business approach. But others worried that their new boss was about to turn the company upside down. Dr. Ruman Chowdhury joined Twitter in 2021 as the head of machine learning, ethics, transparency and accountability. Her job was to make sure the algorithms that Twitter used didn't do bad things, like spread disinformation or toxic content.

Elon Musk took over Twitter with the promise of promoting free speech and making the loss-making platform profitable again. But his critics say he’s destroying Twitter’s culture and driving it to bankruptcy. How much danger is the company really in? In the first episode in a new series of Tech Tonic, Elaine Moore, deputy editor of the FT’s Lex column, asks whether Musk will save Twitter or destroy it.

In this episode we hear from Evan Henshaw-Plath, one of the original creators of Twitter; Rumman Chowdhury, Twitter’s former head of machine learning, ethics, transparency, and accountability who was laid off by Elon Musk; and FT tech reporter Hannah Murphy.

Presented by Elaine Moore. Produced by Edwin Lane and Josh Gabert-Doyon, Executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco. Original music by Metaphor Music. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. Special thanks to Hannah Murphy

Clips: TED Conferences, CBS, Joe Rogan Experience Podcast, MSNBC, CNN

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Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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