A former member of Twitter’s Safety and Trust Council says ‘the platform is no longer secure’

Eirlani Abdul Rahman, who resigned Twitter council earlier this month, just before Musk disbanded the group, told Insiders on Wednesday that “the platform is no longer secure.”

Since its $44 billion acquisition in October, Musk has made a number of changes to Twitter’s policies that he says are aimed at enhancing freedom of expression on the service. In addition, he reinstated previously banned users, including far-right figures and alleged white supremacists, and fired the staff in charge. service control.

At the same time, Twitter has undergone a increase hate speechAccording to the Center Against Digital Hate and the Anti-Defamation League.

“I think we can now see a contradiction between what Musk thinks he can do and the reality of content moderation,” Abdul Rahman said. She added that “content moderation is complicated—he can’t fire the people who work on it and just do it with automation.”

Earlier this month, Twitter disbanded its trust and safety panel, which includes members from several civil and human rights organizations focused on hate speech. Washington Post report. The company appoints a member one email said the council was not the “best structure” for “outside insights” on product and policy development.

After Musk took over, Abdul Rahman said “access” to the trust and safety council stopped—even before the group was disbanded. After her resignation, she said she had many questions about how to handle content moderation and whether it was fully automated.

“It’s not the Twitter I signed up for,” Abdul Rahman said. “You can see it’s very different now and it represents a different way of looking at things.”

Then, referring to Musk, she added: “I think it’s unsettling that he’s making important decisions by running polls and tweeting, ‘Should I do this?’ “

by Twitter newly appointed head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, says Asset that over the past six weeks, Twitter has released data showing that hate speech has dropped significantly across the service based on the number of times a user has seen a hate speech tweet.

“We plan to continue meeting and getting advice from experts in the field, including former Safety and Trust Council members,” Irwin said. “We just love smaller, more targeted meetings and conversations that allow us to tackle specific topics in a more focused way.”

Abdul Rahman also criticized Musk’s introduction of Twitter Blue, Twitter’s new subscription service that includes a blue check mark in the profile of any paying user. This mark was previously only given to users who had their identity verified and at least had a relatively high profile.

Abdul Rahman said she understands Twitter’s monetization needs, but Musk’s approach to Twitter Blue has made Twitter a democratic platform because users who can afford it will have a “better experience.” ” compared to those who cannot. She added that users cannot buy prestige.

Abdul Rahman is not the only one to criticize Musk’s actions since the acquisition of Twitter. Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former chief of trust and safety, resigned less than a month after Musk took over.

“We already have a system of governance,” Mr. told the The Wall Street Journal. “It is based on rules. We enforce our rules as written…We did it transparently, and when that system of governance goes away, you don’t need a trusted and secure leader anymore.”

However, Abdul Rahman said nothing aligns with Twitter’s original “democratic values” and is sad to see what appears to be an exodus of users from the service.

“I don’t know what the future of Twitter will look like, but I don’t think it will bode well if Musk continues to run it the way he is now,” said Abdul Rahman.

Musk did not immediately respond luck Request comments.

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