Disinformation experts have called for “care” to be taken on Twitter this weekend as the social media giant’s new boss he just laid off half his staff just days before the crucial mid-term elections in the United States.
“You should be very careful with this platform in the coming days. What you retweet, what account you’re signed up to, and your perception of what’s going on,” warned Kate Starberd, a disinformation researcher at the University of Washington, for example.
The professor believes there is an increased risk of malicious people pretending to be others, conducting “coordinated disinformation campaigns” or even spreading hoaxes well-designed enough to be shared by other unwary users.
In a letter to advertisers last Thursday, the day of the acquisition, Elon Musk promised advertisers that Twitter would not turn into a “hellscape” where everything will be allowed.
But “Twitter was already hell before Musk took control, and his actions (…) will make things worse,” countered Jessica Gonzalez, co-director of the NGO Free Press.
She fears that Twitter’s ability to control content will be reduced in the middle of the election campaign, “when we know very well that social media is drowning in misinformation and intimidation of minority voters.”
A Montclair State University study concluded that Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter “created a perception among extremist users that restrictions will be relaxed.”
A coalition of about 60 associations, including the Free Press, on Friday called on advertisers to boycott the platform until it pledges to be “a safe place”.
Members of that coalition met with the businessman Musk this week after several studies showed a significant increase in hate speech and racial slurs in recent days.
“Elon Musk has taken steps that make us fear the worst is yet to come,” the coalition said.
The multi-millionaire responded, without backing it up with evidence, that “hate speech actually went down this week.”
On Friday, Musk briefly explained that the layoffs were necessary because “the company is losing more than $4 million a day.”
It had previously attributed the drop in revenue to “a group of activists putting pressure on advertisers, even though nothing changed with content control and we did everything we could to appease the activists.”
“This is nonsense! They are trying to destroy freedom of expression in America,” he raged.
Source: News Beast
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