Elon Musk’s Twitter has dissolved its Trust and Safety Council, the advisory group of around 100 independent civil, human rights and other organizations that the company formed in 2016 to address hate speech, child exploitation, suicide, self-harm and other problems on the platform.
The council had been scheduled to meet with
Twitter representatives Monday night. But Twitter informed the group via email
that it was disbanding it shortly before the meeting was to take place,
according to multiple members.
The council members, who provided images of
the email from Twitter to The Associated Press, spoke on the condition of
anonymity due to fears of retaliation. The email said Twitter was “reevaluating
how best to bring external insights” and the council is “not the best structure
to do this.”
“Our work to make Twitter a safe,
informative place will be moving faster and more aggressively than ever before
and we will continue to welcome your ideas going forward about how to achieve
this goal,” said the email, which was signed “Twitter.”
The volunteer group provided expertise and
guidance on how Twitter could better combat hate, harassment and other harms
but didn’t have any decision-making authority and didn’t review specific
content disputes. Shortly after buying Twitter for $44 billion in late October,
Musk said he would form a new “content moderation council” to help make major
decisions but later changed his mind.
“Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council was a
group of volunteers who over many years gave up their time when consulted by
Twitter staff to offer advice on a wide range of online harms and safety
issues,” tweeted council member Alex Holmes. “At no point was it a governing
body or decision making.”
Twitter, which is based in San Francisco,
had confirmed the meeting with the council Thursday in an email in which it
promised an “open conversation and Q&A” with Twitter staff, including the
new head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin.
That came on the same day that three
council members announced they were resigning in a public statement posted on
Twitter that said that “contrary to claims by Elon Musk, the safety and
wellbeing of Twitter’s users are on the decline.”
Those former council members soon became
the target of online attacks after Musk amplified criticism of them and
Twitter’s past leadership for allegedly not doing enough to stop child sexual
exploitation on the platform.
“Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council was a
group of volunteers who over many years gave up their time when consulted by
Twitter staff to offer advice on a wide range of online harms and safety
issues,” tweeted council member Alex Holmes. “At no point was it a governing
body or decision making.”
Twitter, which is based in San Francisco,
had confirmed the meeting with the council Thursday in an email in which it
promised an “open conversation and Q&A” with Twitter staff, including the
new head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin.
That came on the same day that three
council members announced they were resigning in a public statement posted on
Twitter that said that “contrary to claims by Elon Musk, the safety and
wellbeing of Twitter’s users are on the decline.”
Those former council members soon became
the target of online attacks after Musk amplified criticism of them and
Twitter’s past leadership for allegedly not doing enough to stop child sexual
exploitation on the platform.
“It is a crime that they refused to take
action on child exploitation for years!” Musk tweeted.
A growing number of attacks on the council
led to concerns from some remaining members who sent an email to Twitter
earlier on Monday demanding the company stop misrepresenting the council’s
role.
Those false accusations by Twitter leaders
were “endangering current and former Council members,” the email said.
The Trust and Safety Council, in fact, had
as one of its advisory groups one that focused on child exploitation. This
included the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, the Rati
Foundation and YAKIN, or Youth Adult Survivors & Kin in Need.
Former Twitter employee Patricia Cartes,
whose job it was to form the council in 2016, said Monday its dissolution
“means there’s no more checks and balances.” Cartes said the company sought to
bring a global outlook to the council, with experts from around the world who
could relay concerns about how new Twitter policies or products might affect
their communities.
She contrasted that with Musk’s current practice of surveying his Twitter followers before making a policy change affecting how content gets moderated. “He doesn’t really care as much about what experts think,” she said.