Mark Ruffalo Says Elon Musk Is Destroying His Twitter Credibility The Hollywood Reporter

Mark Ruffalo is urging Elon Musk to turn around his approach to running Twitter after a week of turmoil at the social network that has seen layoffs, advertisers halting ad spending and fears over a new subscription plan that redefines the platform’s verification tool. 

In a series of tweets on Saturday and another on Sunday, the I Know This Much Is True actor directly engaged Musk after US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused the platform of “bottling” her profile.  She tweeted that she followed up on her criticism of Musk’s plans to open up the site’s Twitter verification tool — the “blue check” badge — to anyone willing to pay $8 a month for a Twitter Blue subscription. 

“Elon.  Please — for the love of decency — get off Twitter, hand the keys to someone who does this for a real job, and get on with running Tesla and SpaceX,” Ruffalo said in a tweet citing Rep. Ocasio’s claim- Cortez on Saturday.  “You’re destroying your credibility.  It’s just not a good look.”

Elon. Please—for the love of decency—unlock Twitter, hand the keys to someone who does this as a real job, and get on with Tesla and SpaceX. You are destroying your credibility. It’s just not a good look. https://t.co/34aMtU5h62 — Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) November 4, 2022 Debate over how the platform would handle free speech issues — specifically curbing hate speech and criticism of Twitter’s new owner — has grown in the week since he officially took over the site. Since then, Musk has fired key leaders and fired thousands of employees around the world just days before the 2022 midterm elections. That includes members of the human rights, accessibility, ethical AI, communications and curation groups, who tweeted about their layoffs on Friday, TechCrunch reported.

In response to Ruffalo’s tweet, Musk responded that “not everything AOC says is 💯 accurate.”  (The Hollywood Reporter reached out to Twitter for comment.) 

While Ruffalo answered “maybe yes,” the actor went on to point out that recent outages on the platform and the modification of certain features, such as verification, make it harder to tell.  “That’s why having strong disinformation filters and trusted verified users has been a popular feature for both people and advertisers,” he said.  “We need these safeguards to make sure it’s accurate information, otherwise the app loses credibility, and so do you.  And people are leaving.”

Maybe. This is why having strong disinformation filters and trusted verified users has been a popular feature for both people and advertisers. We need these safeguards to make sure it’s accurate information, otherwise the app loses credibility, and so do you. And people leave. — Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) November 5, 2022 With what’s known about Musk’s proposed Twitter Blue verification plan, anyone paying $8 a month will be able to buy a verification badge without having to verify that their identity matches what’s attached to their account. In 2009, Twitter was sued by Tony La Russa, former MLB player and then manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, for allegations that someone registered his name and started posting offensive comments.

Last week, Pacific Rim and Gray Man actor Rob Kazinksy raised concerns about how someone could impersonate the actor — as someone previously says — to interact with minors through the platform.  (The actor, who wasn’t specific about which platform he’s connected to, said he didn’t have social media at the time, and that one of those kids who was allegedly contacted by someone impersonating him disappeared.) 

On Sunday, Musk also addressed the issue of impersonation after several actors with verified accounts changed their profile name to his, in an effort to highlight how regular Twitter users could potentially be confused or manipulated by the upcoming expansion platform verification.  Actors portraying Musk to highlight this included Hot in Cleveland and One Day at a Time’s Valerie Bertinelli — who was trending as a result — Roswell and The Night Shift star Brendan Fehr and comedian and actress Kathy Griffin, whose account is currently suspended.  . 

“Going forward, anyone operating Twitter who engages in impersonation without clearly identifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended,” Musk wrote.

Going forward, anyone who engages in impersonation on Twitter without clearly identifying the “spoof” will be permanently suspended — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2022 Musk noted in the tweet thread that previously, users received impersonation warnings before their account was suspended. It now suggests that this policy is not only no longer in effect, but that any name change will be reconsidered. “Earlier, we issued a warning before the suspension, but now that we are implementing extensive verification, there will be no warning,” he said. “Any name change will cause the verified check mark to be temporarily lost.”

In Fehr’s response to the account locks early Sunday, he confirmed he had changed his name again before adding: “Don’t worry, she’s still perfectly fine with anyone tweeting lies and irresponsible conspiracies, so it’s all well and good.”

We’re not all Elon Musk anymore… … why did you lock those accounts. 🤣 But don’t worry, they’re still fine with anyone tweeting lies and irresponsible conspiracies, so it’s all well and good. — Brendan Fehr (@unrealfehr) November 6, 2022 Users, former employees and advertisers have also raised concerns in the days leading up to the layoffs and since then about the impact the company’s mass loss of workers would have on the platform’s usability and security. On Friday, Musk tweeted that Twitter had experienced a “massive drop in revenue” and attributed the cause to “activist groups pushing advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content retention and we’ve done everything we can to to appease the activists.” (Advertising was 89 percent of Twitter’s revenue last year.)

On Nov. 1, Politico reported that IPG’s Mediabrands, one of the big four advertising agencies, was advising clients to suspend their ads on Twitter.  In response to a Nov. 4 tweet that suggested these companies be “named and shamed,” Musk tweeted: “A thermonuclear name and shame is exactly what will happen if this continues.”

On Sunday, Ruffalo responded to Musk, writing: “These bodies protect their brands and customers from the misinformation and bigotry that those you fired protected us from.  You have eliminated any protection against fake accounts.  It’s just smart business.  Please don’t make us “Thermal Nuclear,” Chief tweet.”