The takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk has important consequences on the social network, starting with the functioning of its moderation.
While understaffed and forced to enforce their new boss’s changing content policy guidelines, Twitter’s moderators must also contend with the current election backdrop in the United States. Another illustration of Musk’s rocky start at the helm of the company, which currently appears to be sailing on sight.
Musk wants to impose his vision
The takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk was done with losses and a crash. Barely installed in the chair of the boss of the company, the businessman got rid of the board of directors. The one who had announced his intention to lay off three quarters of the company’s employees also thanked many of its developers. Those who stay do so under the constant threat of losing their jobs if they don’t achieve their goals or simply displease the new boss. Other decisions, such as charging for certification, giving certain users back their blocked accounts, or reviewing the social network’s content policies, are also already starting to have visible effects.
These changes, coupled with Musk’s public statements, have unfortunately already given free rein to many discriminating messages from racist, homophobic and even openly neo-Nazi accounts. Posts containing certain racial slurs have jumped 500% since the takeover of Twitter.
The disastrous effect this has on advertisers does not seem to deviate the billionaire from the path he has traced for the moment. This can be seen in particular at the level of the moderation team: only about fifteen employees of the company have access to the moderation functionalities, compared to several hundred usually. Remember that Twitter was already criticized for its too limited moderation even before the takeover by Musk.
A particularly tense context
The few remaining moderators have also received very clear lax instructions from Elon Musk, particularly with regard to the treatment of transphobic messages, those dealing with Covid-19, and especially information related to the elections. coming. Musk himself relayed false information regarding the recent attack on the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Next Tuesday, Americans vote for the midterms, elections during which part of the members of this Chamber put their seat at risk. The polls currently give the Republicans the winners, which in addition to complicating Joe Biden’s policy, could have international repercussions: several members of the party have announced their intention to drastically reduce their country’s support for Ukraine. It is easy to imagine that the Russian secret services have not missed out on information and, since there is no longer any real moderation to prevent them from doing so, they must now redouble their efforts in the information war. on Twitter.
Source : Gizmodo, The world
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