The loosening of Twitters content standards by new owner Elon Musk has made the service unsafe for users, according to a former member of the companys group of outside advisors for trust and safety.
Eirliani Abdul Rahman, who resigned from the Twitter council earlier this month, just before Musk disbanded the group, told Insider on Wednesday that the platform isnt safe any more.
Since his $44 billion acquisition in October, Musk has made a number of changes to Twitters policies that he says are aimed at increasing free speech on the service. Additionally, he has reinstated previously banned users, including far-right figures and people accused of being white supremacists, while firing employees in charge of policing the service.
At the same time, Twitter has experienced an increase in hate speech, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate and the Anti-Defamation League.
I think we can see the friction now between what Musk thinks he can do and the actual reality of content moderation, Abdul Rahman said. She added that content moderation is complexhe cant lay off the people who work on it and just do it by automation.
Earlier this month, Twitter dissolved its trust and safety council, which included members from several civil and human rights organizations focused on hate speech, the Washington Post reported. The company sent members an email that said the council was not the best structure for external insights into product and policy development.
After Musks takeover, Abdul Rahman said outreach to the trust and safety council stoppedeven before the group was disbanded. After resigning, she said shes left with questions about how content moderation will be handled and whether itll be completely automated.
Its not the Twitter I signed up for, Abdul Rahman said. You can see its very different now and it represents a different way of looking at things.
Then referring to Musk, she added: I think its worrisome that hes making major decisions by running polls and tweeting, Should I do this?
Twitters recently appointed head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, told Fortune that over the past six weeks, Twitter has published data showing that hate speech is down significantly service-wide based on the number of times a hateful tweet is seen by users.
We plan to continue meeting with and getting advice from experts in the field, including members of the former Trust and Safety Council, Irwin said. We just prefer smaller, more targeted meetings and conversations that allow us to tackle specific topics in a more focused way.
Abdul Rahman also criticized Musks introduction of Twitter Blue, Twitters new subscription service that includes a blue check mark in the profile of any user who pays. The mark was previously only given to users whose identities had been verified and who had at least a relatively high profile.
Abdul Rahman said she understands the need for Twitter to make money, but Musks approach with Twitter Blue takes away from Twitter being a democratic platform because users who can afford it will have a better experience than those who cant. She added that users shouldnt be able to buy credibility.
Abdul Rahman isnt alone in criticizing Musks actions since acquiring Twitter. Yoel Roth, the former head of trust and safety at Twitter, resigned less than a month after Musk took over.
We had a system of governance, he told the Wall Street Journal. It was rules-based. We enforced our rules as writtenWe did it transparently, and when that system of governance went away, you dont need a head of trust and safety anymore.
Still, Abdul Rahman said theres nothing that matches Twitters original democratic value, and is saddened to see what appears to be an exodus of users from the service.
I dont know what the future of Twitter looks like, but I dont think it will bode very well if Musk continues to run it the way hes doing it right now, Abdul Rahman.
Musk did not immediately respond to Fortunes request for comment.
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