By Aaron Miller-
Twitter’s former head of trust and safety has said the social media giant is not safer under its new owner Elon Musk, its former head of trust and safety has said.
Yoel Roth, who resigned this month from his high post on twitter, was reacting the multiple changes made by the billionaire who struck a mammoth $44bn take over deal of the social networking site, and immediately changed most of the platform’s former rules.
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In a recent interview, Roth said that Twitter “went off the rails in exactly the ways that we anticipated.” Twitter employees attempted to warn Musk of “obvious” problems that would surface if anyone could get a verified badge for $8 a month. He didn’t listen, and the rollout led to chaos – with impersonations and fake news abound. Then, Twitter Blue was paused, and verifications are set to resume this Friday.
He accused Musk of straying away from adhering to publicly available policies, towards decisions made by Musk alone.
“One of my limits was if Twitter starts being ruled by dictatorial edict rather than by policy… there’s no longer a need for me in my role, doing what I do.”
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Roth also claims that the paid verification feature was one of many factors that drove him to resign.
He added that users should gauge the safety of Twitter based on how well safety features like muting, blocking, and protected tweets work. “If protected tweets stop working, run,” Roth said in the interview.
The Tesla billionaire laid off over 50% of the company’s 8,000 workers, including 15% of the trust and safety department.
Mr Roth also defended Twitter’s decision to suspend Donald Trump from the site after the US Capitol riots on 6 January last year, citing the risk of further incitement of violence.
“We saw the clearest possible example of what it looked like for things to move from online to off,” he said.
“We saw people dead in the Capitol.”
Musk reinstated Mr Trump’s account two weeks ago after a slim majority voted in favour of the move in a surprise Twitter poll.
Musk dogmatic stance on free speech is believed to have been influenced by the extent of excessive constraints put on free speech on numerous social media platforms in the past few years.
There is still a general consensus that free speech sometimes needs to be curtailed when its abuse is really damaging with serious consequences, especially hate campaigns and sustained harassment.
Covid misinformation during the height of the pandemic raised a case for limiting free speech. but ran the risk of only allowing speech that suited the narrative of those in power.
Filipina journalist and joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 argued in her book, ”How To Stand Up To A Dictator, that U.S democracies often focus on the West and forget there is a wider world out there with different practices and proclivities.
She made reference to the extra time Filipinos spend online than any other nation, yet their services are minimally moderated. “The Philippines is ground zero for the terrible effects that social media can have on a nation’s institutions, its culture and the mind of its populace,” Ressa wrote.
Violence has been sparked in several countries due to an incitement of hatred in countries like India, Myanmar and Ethiopia.
Ressa stated how former president Rodrigo Duterte abused the advances of technology in the Philippines through the abuse of co-ordinated disinformation campaigns, bot farms and the co-ordination of hate campaigns against opposition politicians.
Strong advocates of free speech say individuals should be allowed to make up their own minds about the information they receive, rather than a superpower doctoring what can and cannot be published.
Allowing the free expression of views in every instance can lead to chaos and destabilisation in many cases where the views being expressed can be proven to be baseless and potentially harmful.
The Law On Freedom Of Speech
Freedom of Speech is the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recognised as a human right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights law by the United Nations.
Article 19 of the UDHR states that “everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference” and “everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice”.
However, the amended version of Article 19 in the ICCPR states that the exercise of these rights carries “special duties and responsibilities” and may “therefore be subject to certain restrictions” when necessary “[f]or respect of the rights or reputation of others” or “[f]or the protection of national security or of public order (order public), or of public health or morals.
Elon Musk’s vision to promote free speech, though well intended, requires his attention that free speech has special responsibilities which must not be ignored.
Apart from plans to charge for account verification, Musk has also indicated he could expand the verification app into areas beyond publishing. Mr Musk has previously said he wants to create something called ‘X’, which would operate in a similar way to China’s WeChat app.
Twitter under Musk could become a place where food can be purchased and a taxi fare can be ordered too.
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