Twitter Inc., the social network being overhauled by new owner Elon Musk, has frozen some employee access to internal tools used for content moderation and other policy enforcement, curbing the staff’s ability to clamp down on misinformation ahead of a major US election.
Most people who work in Twitter’s Trust and Safety organization are currently unable to alter or penalize accounts that break rules around misleading information, offensive posts and hate speech, except for the most high-impact violations that would involve real-world harm, according to people familiar with the matter. Those posts were prioritized for manual enforcement, they said.
People who were on call to enforce Twitter’s policies during Brazil’s presidential election did get access to the internal tools on Sunday, but in a limited capacity, according to two of the people. The company is still utilizing automated enforcement technology, and third-party contractors, according to one person, though the highest-profile violations are typically reviewed by Twitter employees. [snip]
The scaled-back content moderation has raised concerns among employees on Twitter’s Trust and Safety team, who believe the company will be short-handed in enforcing policies in the run-up to the US midterm election on Nov. 8. Trust and Safety employees are often tasked with enforcing Twitter’s misinformation and civic integrity policies -- many of the same policies that former President Donald Trump routinely violated before and after the 2020 elections, the company said at the time.
Other employees said they were worried about Twitter rolling back its data access for researchers and academics, and about how it would deal with foreign influence operations under Musk’s leadership.
On Friday and Saturday, Bloomberg reported a surge in hate speech on Twitter. That included a 1,700% spike in the use of a racist slur on the platform, which at its peak appeared 215 times every five minutes, according to data from Dataminr, an official Twitter partner that has access to the entire platform. The Trust and Safety team did not have access to enforce Twitter’s moderation policies during this time, two people said. (our emphasis)
At the same time, the egomaniacal weasel and "Chief Twit" -- who's now sole director of Twitter, having fired its board of directors -- is making assurances to the European Union that he'll abide by their strict content rules:
Elon Musk has assured the European Commission that Twitter will abide by tough European rules on illegal online content policing now that the social network has passed under his ownership, European Union sources said on Monday.
In a previously unreported exchange last week, Musk told Thierry Breton, the EU's industry chief, that he planned to comply with the region's Digital Services Act, which levies hefty fines on companies if they do not control illegal content.
The "Content Moderation Council" the weasel plans to establish is likely to give equal voice to the fascists that the weasel seems enchanted by and to people concerned with democracy and hate speech. Some advertisers (GM for example) are already pausing their ads on the platform, and others are taking a "wait and see" attitude. Given the flood of vile "speech" occurring upon the weasel's takeover of Twitter, they won't have long to wait.
In the meantime, some celebrities and people with large followings have announced they're done with the weasel's platform, and others, as with some advertisers, are waiting to see if the "hellscape" the weasel promised Twitter wouldn't become, becomes one anyway. The problem is, Twitter under the weasel is going to be fueling misinformation, hate and division whether a dozen advertisers or celebrities quit it or not. It's likely to become a dystopian addition to the far-right ecosystem, along with Fox "News," Newsmax, Parler and all the other sewers, thanks to the weasel. Prove us wrong.
BONUS: Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) has raised concerns about the weasel using financing from the Malignant Loser's buddies -- Saudi Arabia. Any influence by the autocratic butchers on that platform would be a threat not only to silence critics of that rotted out government, but also to add to the cascade of Malignant Loser- friendly misinformation and hate speech on Twitter.
(Image: the weasel with and without his fur/ Hair Palace)
