FTX
- FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said he’d like to talk to Elon Musk about Twitter and other social media.
- He thinks one of the biggest problems with social media platforms is that they’re all independent of each other.
- Using blockchain would solve that issue, as all users would be able to access the same sets of messages, he said.
Crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried wants to share ideas with Elon Musk about technologies used in social media.
In a Tuesday interview with Bloomberg, the FTX chief executive said social media’s “broken model” can be fixed using blockchain.
“What is the moderation policy for all of social media — it’s like three guys? It’s the people who run three companies who choose what does and doesn’t get censored. That’s a broken model,” he said.
“We saw a social media choose not to censor misinformation in 2016, and get absolutely roasted for that decision,” he added. “And then we saw them choose to censor in 2020, and get roasted for that decision.”
Bankman-Fried didn’t identify which platform he was referring to in that comment. It could be Facebook, which was accused in 2016 of influencing the US presidential election through its failure to tackle the spread of misinformation.
One of the biggest problems with social media companies, he said, is that all platforms are independent of each other. He gave the example of Facebook and WhatsApp, which are both part of Meta.
“There’s no ability to see a tweet on Facebook. If you message someone on Facebook, even WhatsApp can’t read it, and that’s even the same company. So, it’s just a really messy system where there’s no interoperability between different platforms.”
Bankman-Fried shared what he thinks would be a good method of communication on such platforms to solve the interoperability issue, saying different interfaces can draw from the same data.
“You put the actual underlying messages directly on the blockchain. What that means is any platform, in theory, could access those same sets of messages. And so whether you’re using Facebook, Twitter, or whatever this platform is… they’re all drawing on all of the messages,” he said.
“What they are is just different interfaces effectively, living in the same universe.”
The crypto exchange founder also believes the use of blockchain technology in the social media space would spur competition. Interoperability between platforms “allows for more competition, because it means new people can enter the space without being miles behind in terms of user base growth,” he said.
Asked whether he’s spoken to Musk directly about his ideas, Bankman-Fried said he hasn’t yet.
“I have not talked directly to Elon about this, but I would be excited to,” he said.
Musk last week offered to buy Twitter in a deal that valued the micro-blogging platform at $43 billion, saying he’d like to unlock the company’s “extraordinary potential.”
The Tesla CEO, who has been critical of Twitter’s decision to permanently ban former President Donald Trump, says he’d like to make significant changes to the platform if he’s able to buy it. He has slammed Twitter for failing to “adhere to free speech principles.”
In a move to thwart Musk’s bid, Twitter has adopted a “poison pill” defense — or a shareholder rights plan — that is used to avoid hostile takeovers by either diluting an acquirer’s stake via creating more shares in the market, or allowing other current shareholders to buy more shares at a discount.
Twitter stock was less than 1% higher in pre-market trading Wednesday, after closing 4.7% lower the prior session. Facebook parent Meta was down 1.2%, after closing 3.1% higher.
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