GENEVA, November 5 (Reuters) – The United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, on Saturday sent an open letter to Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, urging him to “ensure that human rights are at the heart of the management of Twitter”.
Twitter laid off half of its employees on Friday and according to tweets from company staff, the human rights team was among those affected.
“Twitter is part of a global revolution that has transformed the way we communicate,” Volker Türk said in the letter. “But I write with concern and apprehension about our digital public square and Twitter’s role in it”
“Like all businesses, Twitter needs to understand the harms associated with its platform and take steps to address them,” the High Commissioner added.
Friday’s layoffs capped a week of chaos and uncertainty over Twitter’s future under the leadership of Elon Musk, who tweeted on Friday that the service was experiencing a “massive drop in revenue.” (Written by Paul Carrel; French version Kate Entringer)