Twitter’s communications department has already fallen in the big wave of layoffs from new owner Elon Musk. Now the multi-billionaire’s tweets are the primary source of information about his plans for the social media company – not only for journalists, but also for the rest of his staff. The fact that he appears to be managing his $44 billion purchase through 280-character messages is seen as one of the agreements with the stormy entrance of Donald Trump into the White House.
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The first few weeks of Musk’s reign were chaotic, with the voluntary or voluntary layoffs of thousands of employees and the hasty introduction of paid “blue-ticks” that spawned indistinguishable fake accounts and an exodus of advertisers.
Musk says he wants to make Twitter a bastion of free speech. On Thursday evening, he announced a general pardon for Twitter accounts that had previously been closed – often due to threats, discrimination, dissemination of disinformation or doxing – publishing private information. According to Musk, an exception only applies to accounts that have spread spam, or whose owner has violated the law.
Musk followed suit a poll through his Twitter profile. Of the nearly 3.2 million users who took part in that vote, 72.4 percent supported the plan. “The People Have Spoken” Musk tweeted Thursdaythe same text with which he followed earlier a similar poll concluded the suspended personal account of former President Donald Trump to recover. Trump was banned from Twitter after the Capitol storming on January 6, 2021 for fear of ‘Further fomenting of violence’.
There is something to be said about the representativeness of Musk’s plebiscites. According to the latest published data – figures for the second quarter of this year – the platform had 238 million daily users, the vast majority of whom probably did not even see Musk’s poll.
Moderation Board
It is also unclear how the decisions relate to the “moderation board” announced by Musk, which would consider what is and what is not allowed on Twitter. Until then, he wouldn’t be making any big decisions about moderation or account reactivation, Musk tweeted at the time.
Musk did not disclose further details on Friday about how the amnesty will take shape and who will be eligible for it. In the past, Twitter suspended former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke and British conspiracy theorist David Icke.
Musk closed earlier that American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones would get his account back. Jones has long maintained that the fatal shooting at a Sandy Hook elementary school in 2012 was staged and was therefore ordered by US courts to pay survivors a total of more than $ 1.4 billion in damages.
Musk’s erratic moderation policies could cause Twitter to clash not only with advertisers, but also with regulators in the European Union
The amnesty plan has raised concerns among activists who are committed to combating online hate speech and disinformation. Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chin’ono warned that many accounts of African authoritarian regimes, previously suspended for threatening human rights defenders and journalists, would now be reinstated.
Earlier this week, Twitter reactivated a series of accounts that had been suspended for harassing transgender people. A platform that allows harassment of people from the LGBTQ community “leads to the kind of events we saw last Saturday,” said Cathy Renna of a US LGBTQ organization against Bloombergreferring to the Colorado gay club shooting that killed five people.
Racist tweets
The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) observed that 99 percent of the racist tweets addressed to football players reported to Twitter in the run-up to the World Cup were left untouched. CCDH founder Imran Ahmed called on advertisers in response to the amnesty to turn his back on Twitter.
Read also: Elon Musk completes takeover of Twitter and fires top company
Musk’s erratic moderation policies could bring Twitter into conflict not only with advertisers, but also with regulators in the European Union. The recently enacted Digital Services Act (DSA) obliges providers of online services to act much more actively than before against harmful material on their platforms. Musk has said he will abide by the DSA. Well reported the Financial Times this week that the company has closed its Brussels office.
In another tweet Musk announced Friday morning that it would resume sales of “blue ticks,” as part of a paid Twitter Blue subscription. Those vignettes were previously reserved for public figures such as politicians, celebrities or journalists whose identity Twitter had verified.
Musk made the tick, often seen as a status symbol, part of a paid subscription earlier this month that aims to reduce Twitter’s reliance on advertisers. It led to chaos when paying users created fake accounts that were barely distinguishable from the real thing, including those of Elon Musk himself. The program was then temporarily suspended.
Starting next week, the blue ticks will be available again for $7.99 per month. According to Musk, the accounts will now be checked first. In addition, there will be golden check marks for companies and gray check marks for government institutions.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of November 26, 2022