The council of 100 independent civil rights leaders and advocates helped to improve safety on the social platform
Twitter abruptly disbanded its Trust and Safety Council on Monday night, the Associated Press reported. The council, which was comprised of about 100 independent civil rights leaders and advocates from around the world, helped to improve safety on the social platform.
Less than an hour before members of the council were expecting to meet with Twitter representatives via Zoom, an email arrived in their inboxes informing the group that the company was “reevaluating how best to bring external insights” and that the council is “not the best structure to do this.” Multiple members provided images of the email, which was signed “Twitter,” to the AP.
“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,” the email further stated.
The social media giant formed the council in 2016 to address hate speech, child exploitation, suicide, self-harm and other issues of safety on the platform. However, the volunteer group did not have decision-making authority on specific content issues.
In October, after officially acquiring the company for $44 billion, Elon Musk announced plans to create a “content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints.” However, the newly minted Twitter CEO didn’t go into details on who would make up that council, how membership would be determined, or what types of aspects of “content” they would control.
Since Musk’s takeover, the company has seen massive layoffs and resignations.
In a recent interview with Reuters, Ella Irwin, who was installed as Twitter’s new head of trust and safety in November, said Musk has encouraged the company to rely more on automation and less on human review when making content moderation decisions.