Elon Musk

Twitter faces a class action lawsuit over mass employee layoffs with proper legal notice • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 4, 2022Posted in Apps, elon buys twitter, Elon Musk, Government & Policy, Layoffs, Social, TwitterNo Comments

Twitter is being sued for not giving employees advanced written notice of a mass layoff, in violation of worker protection laws including the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act as well as the California WARN Act, both of which require 60 days of advance notice. Following Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the company began mass layoffs early on Friday in an effort to reduce costs by eliminating 3,700 jobs, or 50% of its total workforce. Bloomberg first reported the news of the lawsuit, filed on November 3, 2022 in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California. The complaint notes that Twitter began its layoffs on November 1, when it terminated the plaintiff in the lawsuit, Emmanuel Cornet, without providing the proper written notice in violation of U.S. and California law. Additional plaintiffs, Justine De Caires, Jessica Pan, and Grae Kindel said they were terminated on November 3 by being locked out of their accounts. Twitter is also enacting widespread layoffs across its workforce today, on Nov. 4, 2022, it stated, adding that California’s Employment Development Department had not received a notice related to the event. The suit reminds the court that Musk had previously laid off employees without notice at another company he owns, Tesla. A federal judge later ruled that Tesla must inform workers of the proposed class action lawsuit, as the termination agreements they had signed may have been misleading and caused them to waive their rights under federal law, Reuters reported at the time. Musk had dismissed that lawsuit as “trivial,” when commenting on the lawsuit at the Qatar Economic Forum organized by Bloomberg. In the new complaint against Twitter, the plaintiffs are asking the court to declare that Twitter has violated the federal and California WARN Acts and certify the case as a class action suit. It’s also asking the court to stop Twitter from having the laid-off employees sign documents that would release their claims without informing them of this lawsuit. And it’s seeking a range of relief, including compensatory damages (including wages owed), as well as declaratory relief, pre- and post-judgment interest, plus other attorneys’ fees and costs. Under Twitter’s takeover deal terms, Musk had agreed to keep employee compensation and benefits the same. That means the laid-off employees should receive 60 days of salary and the cash value of the stock they were to receive within three months of their last date at the company, per law. “Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, has made clear that he believes complying with federal labor laws is ‘trivial’ We have filed this federal complaint to ensure that Twitter should be held accountable to our laws and to prevent Twitter employees from unknowingly signing away their rights.” Shannon Liss-Riordan, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit told CNN in a statement. Twitter hasn’t responded to requests for comment — but that could also be because its comms staff has been included in the layoffs. The company has gone about its mass layoffs in a chaotic and fairly cold fashion. Instead of being informed personally, Twitter employees were to receive an email with an update about their employment status by Friday 9 AM PT. If they still had a job, the email would come to their work inbox. If not, they’d receive a personal email as access to internal systems was cut off. A number of Twitter employees around the world have already posted tweets indicating that they have been laid off and are sharing sympathies with their fellow “tweeps.” Twitter also closed its offices temporarily as the layoffs were underway by disabling badge access. The transition has been one of confusion for Twitter staff. It’s been reported that Twitter’s new owner hadn’t officially communicated with employees following the deal’s closure on Oct. 27, leading staff to learn of events by following Musk’s tweets, through private chats, on workplace gossip site Blind, and by reading news media reports. Immediately after the takeover, Musk fired CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, General Counsel Sean Edgett and Head of Legal Policy, Trust and Safety Vijaya Gadde. Other top executives like Chief Consumer Officer Sarah Personette and Chief of People and Diversity Dalana Brand handed in their resignations the following day. General manager for core technologies Nick Caldwell, Chief marketing officer Leslie Berland, Twitter’s head of product Jay Sullivan, and its vice president of global sales, Jean-Philippe Maheu, have also left. The company canceled its upcoming developer conference Chirp and it appears that Twitter’s head of its developer platform, Amir Shevat, is also out, as he tweeted he’s “better out than in” and thanked the developer community for the amazing journey they had. In addition to reducing the number of employees, Musk has also been overhauling Twitter’s product at a rapid pace. Earlier this week, he announced his intention to enact a new version of the Twitter Blue paid subscription, which will cost $8 per month and offer users the verification check mark, fewer ads, and the ability to post longer videos. According to a report by The Platformer, Twitter is also planning to shut down its long-form writing product Notes and newsletter product Revue, which was acquired in 2021. Tweets indicate that staff that worked on Twitter Communities were also laid off, suggesting that product may also be shut down. The new legal complaint is embedded below. Twitter class action lawsuit over mass layoffs by ZebethMedia on Scribd

Twitter’s mass layoffs are set to begin tomorrow morning • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 4, 2022Posted in Elon Musk, Layoffs, Social, TwitterNo Comments

According to an internal memo sent to Twitter employees, the new management under Elon Musk will begin conducting layoffs Friday morning. These layoffs have been rumored since before Musk’s takeover, with the most recent report estimating that half of the 7,500 employees will lose their jobs. On Thursday evening, all employees received an email stating that they will be informed of their employment status at 9 A.M. PT on Friday. Each email will be sent with the subject line “Your Role at Twitter.” If an employee is keeping their job, they’ll be notified via their work email — if they’re let go, they’ll be notified on a personal address. “To help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data, our offices will be temporarily closed and all badge access will be suspended,” the email reads. “If you are in an office or on your way to an office, please return home.” The email was impersonally signed “Twitter.” According to a post from a Twitter employee, staff members have been flooding an internal Slack channel with blue heart emojis as they wait to learn their fate tomorrow. Musk’s team has already tried to evaluate the productivity of Twitter employees by asking engineers to print out the code that they have written in the last 30 to 60 days. Musk also brought in Tesla engineers to look over Twitter code. Still, it’s not clear what divisions of the company will be impacted. At Tesla, Musk axed the entire PR team a few years ago — by that notion, it’s likely that he will get rid of Twitter’s PR team. When Musk first took over last week, he immediately fired four key executives: CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, General Counsel Sean Edgett and Head of Legal Policy, Trust and Safety Vijaya Gadde. Twitter’s Chief Consumer Officer Sarah Personette and Chief of People and Diversity Dalana Brand resigned the following day. This story is developing…

Musk to slash Twitter’s headcount by half — report • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 3, 2022Posted in Elon Musk, Social, TwitterNo Comments

More on rumors of looming job cuts at Twitter: Bloomberg is reporting that new owner Elon Musk will slash headcount by 50% to cut costs, citing people familiar with the matter. Its report suggests staff will begin being told Friday. Additionally, Bloomberg says Musk will reverse Twitter’s current ‘work from anywhere’ policy — and intends to require staff to work from offices, with the possibility that some exceptions could be made. The social media firm has around 7,500 employees in total globally — so halving headcount would mean cutting around 3,750 jobs. While issuing a blanket mandate to return to office working could be a strategy for Musk to accelerate the staff purge by encouraging employees to leave voluntarily if they don’t like the change of terms. We reached out to Twitter for comment on Bloomberg’s report but at the time of writing it had not responded. A number of staff already left Twitter prior to the Musk takeover, electing to leave pre-emptively rather than stay for the inevitable drama/workplace hell. Musk also fired a clutch of top execs immediately on taking over the company, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, General Counsel Sean Edgett and Head of Legal Policy, Trust and Safety Vijaya Gadde — reportedly bringing in a coterie of advisors and Tesla staff to help him decide on how to restructure Twitter. The billionaire has not yet made it clear how he will reshape the company — but he is under pressure to shrink costs given the amount of debt he’s had to take on by taking over Twitter. In recent days, he has also been lashing out at Twitter’s core customers (advertisers), following reports that some are going cold on the platform over brand safety concerns attached to his particular brand of ‘free speech’ — a self-defeating dynamic that looks set to increase Musk’s financial bind. Bloomberg’s report of looming job cuts of 50% follows a Washington Post article at the end of last month that suggested Musk planned to cut 25% of the workforce. Earlier last month the Post had also reported that Musk planned to axe 75% of Twitter staff — a report Musk denied, according to a Bloomberg report citing ‘people familiar with the matter’. While Musk does not appear to have made public remarks on any of these headcount downsizing rumors he did tweet late last month to deny a New York Times report that had suggested layoffs at Twitter would take place before November 1 in order to avoid schedule stock grant payouts — dubbing that report “false”. In the small hours this morning, Musk was instead tweeting cryptically about Twitter’s potential for “improvement”. … with a lot of room for improvement — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 3, 2022

Here’s what happened at Elon Musk’s meeting with civil rights leaders • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 2, 2022Posted in content moderation, Elon Musk, Social, TwitterNo Comments

After meeting with a group of civil rights leaders about his content moderation plans, new “Chief Twit” Elon Musk has committed to uphold existing election integrity policies until at least after the results of next week’s U.S. midterm elections have been certified. According to statements from leaders who attended the meeting, the mogul said he will not reinstate previously banned Twitter users until there is a transparent process for doing so. Musk also committed to including representatives from groups that suffer from hate-fueled violence in his proposed content moderation council. “Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-platformed for violating Twitter rules back on [the] platform until we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks,” Musk wrote in a tweet about the meeting. He did not elaborate on which users would qualify to be reinstated. Musk has not always followed through on promises he has made about his business plans, making it hard to take his plans at face value. But for now, he has claimed he won’t be making vital content moderation decisions alone. According to Musk’s tweets, his meeting included representatives from Free Press, the Asian American Foundation (TAAF), Color of Change, the NAACP, the Bush Center, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). ZebethMedia reached out to these groups to independently confirm their attendance; all but the Bush Center, LULAC and TAAF have confirmed thus far. “The NAACP met with Elon Musk to express our grave concerns with the dangerous, life-threatening hate and conspiracies that have proliferated on Twitter under his watch. According to a report, hate speech increased by approximately 500% in the first 12 hours following his acquisition. Now let that sink in,” said NAACP President Derrick Johnson in an emailed statement. “Nazi memes, racial slurs, and extreme far-right propaganda do not belong in the ‘town square’ of any democracy or online platform. […] In the immediacy, it is critical that Twitter’s existing election integrity policies remain in effect until at the very least after the midterm elections have been certified.” Multiple leaders present at yesterday’s meeting have been vocal critics of Musk’s ideas for Twitter. The CEO of the ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt, wrote a statement after Musk took leadership of Twitter on Thursday, expressing the organization’s concern about the safety of marginalized groups on the platform. “We are concerned that Mr. Musk’s acquisition of Twitter may accelerate what ADL has seen repeatedly: the pushing out of marginalized communities from social media,” the statement reads. “As with Telegram, Gab, Parler, Rumble, and other platforms that refuse to address incitement and slander in the name of free speech, such platforms have become hotbeds for radicalism and hate. This invariably reduces the diversity of views on these services and narrows rather than expands the public conversation.” This was certainly a productive meeting & I appreciate @ElonMusk’s willingness to hear our concerns. With these 3 commitments, we’re cautiously optimistic about the future of @Twitter & will provide input & insight whenever possible. Ultimately, actions speak louder than words. — Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) November 2, 2022 After he and ADL Vice President Yael Eisenstat participated in the virtual call with Musk, Greenblatt said that he is “cautiously optimistic” about Musk’s promises. Free Press has also taken action to respond to Musk’s ownership of Twitter. Yesterday, Free Press and dozens of other civil society groups published an open letter, calling on top-20 advertisers to demand that Musk uphold the network’s existing content moderation policies. “These commitments are a good first step but really just the beginning of a long process,” wrote Free Press co-CEO Jessica J. González in a statement. “As the report Free Press published last week shows, hate, abuse and conspiracy theories are rampant on Twitter. There is much more to do to make Twitter a space for robust and healthy dialogue.” Musk had already stated that he wants to build a content moderation council, which will discuss issues like the ban on former President Donald Trump’s account, which Musk has said he believes was a mistake. Twitter permanently banned Trump’s account in the days after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol because his tweets violated Twitter’s Glorification of Violence policy. Even though Musk claims he will not re-platform any banned users until a clear process is established, users are concerned about how these plans will impact vulnerable groups, like the LGBTQ community. Last week, Musk replied to a tweet from the daughter of academic and self-help author Jordan Peterson, who was suspended from the platform for deadnaming trans actor Elliott Page and calling Page’s surgeon a “criminal physician” over the summer. When she asked if he would bring her father back on the platform, he replied: “Anyone suspended for minor & dubious reasons will be freed from Twitter jail.” Even Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has tweeted at the SpaceX and Tesla CEO about reversing Peterson’s ban. Anyone suspended for minor & dubious reasons will be freed from Twitter jail — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022 Even though Musk promised these civil rights leaders that his content moderation council will include members of groups who face hate-fueled violence, this claim is at odds with Musk’s recent platforming of anti-LGBTQ conspiracy theories. Musk’s own Twitter history doesn’t set a reassuring precedent either. In April, he posted a meme making fun of Twitter’s head of policy and trust, Vijaya Gadde (who he fired immediately upon securing his takeover). The post, which criticized her for having a left-wing bias, incited a torrent of abusive, racist tweets at the executive. Earlier this month, Musk also warmly welcomed Ye (formerly Kanye West) to Twitter after he was suspended from Instagram for posting antisemitic messages. But 12 hours later, Ye was suspended from Twitter as well — he had continued his antisemitic tirade on the platform now owned by Musk, threatening that he was “going death [sic] con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.” For the last week, Musk’s

Elon Musk floats $8 Twitter subscription that includes verification, long-form video and audio posting and fewer ads • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 1, 2022Posted in Apps, elon buys twitter, Elon Musk, Twitter, twitter blueNo Comments

After much uncertainty around Twitter Blue’s revamp, Elon Musk laid out the company’s approach. He said that the new paid plan will cost $8 per month — something that he mentioned in a reply to Stephen King’s tweet. Plus, the price will be adjusted according to purchasing power parity of the company, hinting towards a global launch of Twitter Blue. Musk’s tweet also says that the social network’s current verification system is akin to a “lords & peasants” system. His tweet about the new paid plan indicated offering verification to subscribers. Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022 Musk also noted some of the features that will roll out with this new plan including fewer ads, priority in replies (something which verified handles get through the “Verified” notification channel) mentions and search, and the ability post longer videos than the current limit of 2 minutes 20 seconds You will also get:– Priority in replies, mentions & search, which is essential to defeat spam/scam– Ability to post long video & audio– Half as many ads — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022 Musk has a tendency of changing his mind quickly, so we should take this announcement with a grain of salt. These might not be the final set of features when Twitter rolls out its new subscription plan. Earlier this week, reports noted that Musk and Twitter are revamping the verification process, and it might involve a fee as high as $20 per month. However, the billionaire has seemed to settle on the $8 per month pricing for now. The reports also noted that the current set of verified users will lose their blue checkmark if they don’t pay for the new paid plan. Musk hasn’t mentioned any such measure in the new Twitter thread about the subscription plan. Earlier today, ZebethMedia reported that Twitter is ending support for ad-free articles offered under its Twitter Blue program. The company sent an email to participating publisher partners about the program’s end. While Twitter is ending payments and partnerships with the current set of publishers, Musk said that it will create a new program for bypassing paywalls for publishers willing to work with the company. He also mentioned that the subscription revenue stream will help Twitter in rewarding content creators — but didn’t specify how. This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022 (Story is developing)

Twitter ad sales head resigned amid turbulent Musk takeover • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 1, 2022Posted in Elon Musk, Sarah Personette, Social, TwitterNo Comments

Twitter’s Chief Consumer Officer Sarah Personette has left the company, she wrote in a Twitter thread Tuesday morning. Personette, who was in charge of Twitter’s ad sales business, said that she resigned on Friday, and her work access was officially cut off by Tuesday. The day before her resignation, Musk fired four key executives immediately after his takeover: CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, General Counsel Sean Edgett and Head of Legal Policy, Trust and Safety Vijaya Gadde. It has been the greatest privilege to serve all of you as a leader and a partner. Many have heard me say this but the most important role I believe I played in the company was championing the requirements of brand safety. — Sarah Personette (@SEP) November 1, 2022 With Personette out of the picture, the number of remaining pre-Musk executives at Twitter is dwindling, with more key personnel rumored to be leaving as well. Jay Sullivan, Twitter’s head of product, deleted the bio on his Twitter account, which previously denoted his role at the company. The previous head of product, Kayvon Beykpour, was let go by former CEO Agrawal in May. A former Facebook marketing VP, Personette had worked at Twitter since October 2018, when she joined as a VP of Global Client Solutions, per LinkedIn. She was promoted to Chief Customer Officer in August 2021. That role is crucial to Twitter’s business, since the majority of its revenue comes from ad sales. With Musk expected to make changes to content moderation policies, ad sales could be impacted. As newly installed “Chief Twit” Elon Musk took over on Thursday, he posted a screenshot of a letter he wrote to Twitter advertisers, vowing that the platform “obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape.” Personette quote-tweeted his message, saying that he had a great conversation with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO. She added, “Our continued commitment to brand safety for advertisers remains unchanged. Looking forward to the future!” But by the following evening, she had resigned. “It has been the greatest privilege to serve all of you as a leader and a partner,” Personette said. “Many have heard me say this but the most important role I believe I played in the company was championing the requirements of brand safety.”

Twitter to end ad-free news articles as part of its revamp of the Twitter Blue subscription • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 1, 2022Posted in Ads, Apps, Elon Musk, Twitter, twitter blueNo Comments

It’s public knowledge now that one of the first things Elon Musk is concentrating on after taking over Twitter is revamping the Twitter Blue program. While a lot of attention has been around a potential verification feature being included in the paid program, the company is also removing some of the existing features like publisher partnerships, according to an email received by one of the partners. According to 9to5Mac, which was one of the partners in the program, the company sent an email to all publishers on October 31 notifying them that the Twitter Blue partnership is ending. The program allowed paid users to see ad-free articles on participating publications, and the social network would pay publishers an equivalent amount of ad revenue earned from one view. It had more than 350 publishers on board including the likes of The Washington Post, L.A. Times, Reuters, and The Atlantic. “In the coming weeks, we’ll be launching an update to Twitter Blue. In the course of this work, we have made the decision to discontinue Ad-free Articles, effective as of the close of business today, October 31, 2022. This hard decision will allow us to focus our resources on adding additional value for our members. Expect to hear more from us soon,” the email read. “Starting tomorrow, we will stop displaying the “Twitter Blue Publisher” label on any Tweets containing your articles. We will no longer be sending a Twitter Blue token when people on Twitter access articles from your properties. This will prevent the ad-free experience on your site from loading.” Currently, some users can still see labels accompanying this article, but Twitter will gradually stop showing them. Publishers, meanwhile, were informed they could remove any Twitter Blue code from their website and were told they would only be able to access the Twitter Blue Publisher portal through the end of November. All payouts will continue on the regular schedule until the program, which the email described as a “test,” is shut down. Image Credits: ZebethMedia Twitter didn’t immediately comment on the development. The feature’s closure is not only abrupt, it also squanders Twitter’s investment in the ad-free reading experience. The company acquired the news reading service Scroll in May 2021, with the goal of making it a part of its own subscription offering. It later shut down Scroll in the fall of last year as it moved the service’s feature set into Twitter Blue. The service itself may not have been profitable, as it would redirect a portion of subscription revenue to support the publishers that readers engaged with. This could cut into Twitter’s bottom line for a subscription that, in and of itself, wasn’t doing very well. According to new data from app intelligence provider Sensor Tower, Twitter’s app had only generated $6.4 million in consumer spending to date, with Blue as the top in-app purchase. That’s not a lot considering the subscription has been available since last year and Twitter has some 238 million monetizable daily active users. Twitter Blue is currently available in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In addition to ad-free news, it has offered features like a button to edit tweets within a 30-minute timeframe, a bookmarks folder, custom icons and navigation, and early access to experimental features. Reports have suggested that Musk could price the new Twitter Blue at $20 per month — but in a reply to writer Stephen King, he suggested $8 per month. It’s clear there’s no decision yet on pricing. According to CNBC, the Tesla and SpaceX exec has set very aggressive deadlines for the Twitter Blue revamp with some employees having to work in 12-hour shifts. Additional reporting: Sarah Perez

With Bret Taylor out as Twitter board chair, he can focus entirely on Salesforce • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 1, 2022Posted in Bret Taylor, elon buys twitter, Elon Musk, Enterprise, Salesforce, TwitterNo Comments

Usually being a board chair is a job that involves running some meetings and pushing through routine company business, but when Bret Taylor became Twitter board chair last year, he was getting a lot more than he bargained for. Taylor was promoted to the job in November 2021, the same day Jack Dorsey resigned as CEO. That in itself was an inauspicious start, and it would only get rockier. As though that weren’t enough for one person to take on, Bret was also promoted to co-CEO at Salesforce in the same week. It seemed like a good thing at the time, helping run two of the most influential tech companies out there, but the situation with Twitter quickly devolved. By April, Elon Musk bought a 9.2% stake and demanded a board seat before backing off that and making a $43 billion offer to buy the company outright. It’s been a roller-coaster ride ever since, with the board accepting the offer, then Musk trying to back out, the board initiating a court case to force him to go through with it, and finally Musk taking over this week and promptly dissolving the board under the terms of the merger agreement. That’s quite a ride by any measure, and after all that, who would blame Taylor for being anything but relieved that the gig was over. Truth be told, the board chair gig probably took up a bit more of his attention than he had anticipated when he agreed to take the job. But now Taylor can devote himself, fully unencumbered, to his day job being co-CEO at Salesforce, leading the CRM giant with co-founder, chairman and co-CEO Marc Benioff. Meanwhile, Salesforce has been having some issues of its own, with its stock price down 34% this year. To be fair, many SaaS stocks are down double digits this year, but it has left it vulnerable to activist investors. And earlier this month, Starboard Value took an undetermined stake in the company with plans to work with Salesforce to increase its value. That’s enough of a headache to deal with without another job gnawing at your consciousness, especially one that involved the mercurial Musk. The company also announced big plans to reach $50 billion in revenue by FY2026, which pleases investors, even Starboard, but they want to see the company increase growth and profitability. In its most recent earnings report at the end of August, the company reported revenue over $7.7 billion, putting it on a run rate over $30 billion, but that’s a fair distance from the stated goal of $50 billion in about two and a half years. It wasn’t that long ago that $20 billion was the goal, so I wouldn’t put it past them, but it’s going to take focus to get there, and being involved in the Twitter saga could have been an unnecessary irritant pulling Taylor away from this central task. The bottom line is Taylor has a lot going on. He is co-leading a company with over 70,000 employees with activist investors breathing down the company’s neck. Getting let go by Elon Musk frees him to devote his full attention to Salesforce. And that might not be a bad thing.

Elon Musk’s Twitter already looks grim for the LGBTQ community • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 1, 2022Posted in Elon Musk, lgbtq, Social, TwitterNo Comments

He’s only owned Twitter for a couple of days, but Elon Musk has already undermined his credibility on some of social media’s most vexing problems, all while displaying a disturbing inclination toward anti-LGBTQ views. The world’s most credulous billionaire couldn’t help but respond to a tweet over the weekend from Hillary Clinton denouncing Republican support for extremist conspiracies that inspire real-world violence. “The Republican Party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and deranged conspiracy theories,” Clinton wrote. “It is shocking, but not surprising, that violence is the result.” Last week, a man broke into the San Francisco home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and assaulted her husband with a hammer. The assailant, 42-year-old David DePape, shared antisemitic conspiracy theories, election denialism, screeds against transgender people and violent threats to journalists in the months leading up to the break in. Musk, who now owns the platform, quickly waded in with a conspiracy of his own, pointing Clinton to a website with a track record of publishing outlandish and easily-debunked misinformation. The story Musk shared was headlined “The Awful Truth: Paul Pelosi Was Drunk Again, And In a Dispute With a Male Prostitute Early Friday Morning.” The story’s supporting evidence is that DePape has connections to the nudist community and “Castro Nudists are a group of really radical gay male prostitutes that parade around naked with c–k rings.” The conspiracy hinges on a since-corrected early KTVU report that DePape was in his underwear when arrested. “There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye,” Musk tweeted alongside the link to the Santa Monica Observer, which once claimed Hillary Clinton had died and been replaced by a body double. By Monday, Musk had deleted the tweet and the Santa Monica Observer topped its story with an update noting police reports that Pelosi did not know DePape. Musk’s ongoing embrace of far-right conspiracies is alarming considering that he now owns the company. Just last week, he sought to reassure advertisers that his version of Twitter wouldn’t become a “free-for-all hellscape,” a promise that quickly rang untrue given Musk’s bizarre impulse to share obvious political misinformation. It’s not just his interest in homophobic conspiracies about Paul Pelosi’s fictional gay lover. Last week, Musk took time out of his day to reply to the daughter of academic and self-help author Jordan Peterson, who was suspended from the platform for deadnaming trans actor Elliott Page and calling Page’s surgeon a “criminal physician” over the summer. Anyone suspended for minor & dubious reasons will be freed from Twitter jail — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022 In the reply to Peterson’s daughter, Musk said that “anyone suspended for minor & dubious reasons will be freed from Twitter jail,” dismissing the seriousness of Peterson’s inexplicable attacks on Page and inviting more transphobia on the platform in the process. Twitter’s current rules on hateful conduct prohibit “targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals,” a policy that was added in 2018 to protect trans people from harassment. It’s hard to imagine that policy sticking around for long under Musk. Peterson’s Twitter account was frozen until he deletes the offending tweet, but that’s not likely to happen — Peterson dramatically said he would “rather die” than take it down. YouTube demonetized some of Peterson’s videos back in August for deadnaming Page and declaring that gender-affirming medical care for trans people is “Auschwitz and Gulag-level wrong,” likening the often life-saving interventions to a “Nazi medical experiment.” Prior to acquiring Twitter, Musk also made it clear that his Twitter would be a safe home for antisemitism. After Instagram restricted Kanye West’s account for invoking antisemitic tropes and accusing Sean “Diddy” Combs of being controlled by “the Jewish people,” Musk warmly welcomed West back to Twitter. West hopped over to the platform, promising a fresh antisemitic rant that would go “death [sic] con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE,” a tweet that violated Twitter’s rules. In the 12 hours after Elon Musk closed the deal, instances of anti-Black racial slurs on the platform also shot up by 500%, according to an organization that studies social media activity. The flood of racism was notable enough that Twitter’s head of Safety and Integrity weighed in, though Musk’s recent behavior undermined his hopeful message that the team would continue working “to make Twitter safe and welcoming for everyone.” Over the last 48 hours, we’ve seen a small number of accounts post a ton of Tweets that include slurs and other derogatory terms. To give you a sense of scale: More than 50,000 Tweets repeatedly using a particular slur came from just 300 accounts. — Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) October 30, 2022 Musk’s superficial grasp of content moderation’s complexities and his apparent eagerness to enable homophobia, transphobia and antisemitism on Twitter do not bode well for a platform that’s long been a nexus of harassment for many of its users. Potential cuts to Twitter’s workforce, including its trust and safety teams, could set back recent product and policy changes designed to make Twitter a safer place. Based on the tone he’s setting, it looks unlikely that Musk’s Twitter will be very interested in protecting the communities that bear the brunt of targeted abuse on the platform. Musk’s own history of amplifying misinformation and even directing his own harassment campaign at a now-former Twitter policy executive speak volumes about what’s in store. “We are very concerned about Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter,” the Human Rights Campaign wrote in a statement Friday. “This isn’t about censorship or discrimination of ideas – it is about what kind of company they want to be and what kind of world they want to shape.”

Elon Musk tells Europe that Twitter will comply with bloc’s illegal speech rules • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 31, 2022Posted in Digital Services Act, Elon Musk, Government & Policy, online regulation, Social, thierry-breton, TwitterNo Comments

Surprise! Elon Musk’s tenure at Twitter is already shaping up to be confusing and contradictory. Whether this dynamic ends up being more self-defeating for him and his new company than harmful for the rest of humanity and human civilization remains tbc. On the one hand, a fresh report today suggests Musk is preparing major staff cuts: 25%, per the Washington Post. (He denied an earlier report by the same newspaper, last week — suggesting he’d told investors he planned to slash costs by liquidating a full 75% of staff — so how radical a haircut he’s planning is still unclear, even as reports of fired staffers are trickling onto Twitter.) But, also today, Reuters reported that Twitter’s new CEO — the self-styled “Chief Twit” — reached out to the European Union last week to assure local lawmakers that the platform will comply with an incoming flagship reboot of the bloc’s rules on digital governance around illegal content. A move that will, self-evidently, demand a beefed up legal, trust and safety function inside Twitter if Musk is to actually deliver compliance with the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) — at a time when Musk is sharpening the knives to cut headcount. DSA compliance for a platform like Twitter will likely require a whole team in and of itself. A team that should be starting work ASAP. The comprehensive EU framework for regulating “information society services” and “intermediary services” across the bloc spans 93 articles and 156 recitals — and is due to start applying as soon as next year for larger platforms. (It’s February 17, 2024, for all the rest.) Penalties for violations of the incoming regime can scale up to 6% of global annual turnover — which, on Twitter’s full year revenue for 2021, implies potential fines of up to a few hundred million dollars apiece. So there should be incentive to comply to avoid such costly regulatory risk. (Er, unless Musk’s strategy for “saving” Twitter involves dismantling the business entirely and running its revenue into the ground.) Yet — in another early step — one of Musk’s first moves as owner of the social media platform was to fire a number of senior execs, including Vijaya Gadde, its former head of Legal, Policy, Trust and Safety. Musk had been critical of her role in a decision by Twitter, back in October 2020, to — initially — limit the distribution of a controversial New York Post article reporting on emails and other data supposedly originating on a laptop belonging to U.S. president Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. The action led to accusations that Twitter was censoring journalism and demonstrating a pro-Democrat bias, even though the company subsequently rowed back on the restrictions and revised its policies. Targeted harassment Musk waded into the saga earlier this year with a tweet that branded the Post’s story “truthful” and dubbed Twitter’s actions “incredibly inappropriate.” He also doubled down shortly afterward by retweeting a meme targeting Gadde by name — which led to a vicious pile-on by his followers that prompted former Twitter CEO, Dick Costolo, to tweet at Musk publicly to ask why he was encouraging targeted harassment of the Twitter exec. Put another way, a former Twitter CEO felt forced to call out the (now current) CEO of Twitter for encouraging targeted harassment of a senior staffer — who also happens to be a woman and POC. To say that this bodes badly for Twitter’s compliance with EU rules that are intended to ensure platforms act responsibility toward users — and drive accountability around how they are operated — is an understatement. what’s going on? You’re making an executive at the company you just bought the target of harassment and threats. — dick costolo (@dickc) April 27, 2022 While the EU’s DSA is most focused on governance rules for handling illegal content/goods and so on — that is, rather than tackling the grayer area of online disinformation, election interference, “legal but harmful” stuff (abuse, bullying, etc.), and such, areas where the EU has some other mechanisms/approaches in the works — larger platforms can be designated as a specific category (called VLOPs, or very large online platforms) and will then have a set of additional obligations they must comply with. These extra requirements for VLOPs include carrying out mandatory risk assessments in areas such as whether the application of their terms and conditions and content moderation policies have any negative effects on “civic discourse, electoral processes and public security,” for example; and a follow-on requirement to mitigate any risks — by putting in place “reasonable, proportionate and effective mitigation measures, tailored to the specific systemic risks identified” (including where risks are impacting users’ fundamental rights, so stuff like respect for human dignity and equality; nondiscrimination; respect for diversity, etc., among other core rights listed in the EU charter). The implication is a VLOP would face major challenges under the DSA if it was to ignore risks to fundamental rights flowing from, say, a decision to apply a “free speech absolutist” approach to content moderation, as Musk has, at times, claimed is his preference (but — ever mercurial — he’s also said that, as Twitter CEO, he would comply with all legal requirements, everywhere in the world they apply). Whether Twitter will be classed as a VLOP is one (now) very burning question for EU citizens and lawmakers. The Commission hasn’t specified either way — but internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton, has (at least) heavily implied Musk’s Twitter will face meaningful checks and balances under the DSA. Which suggests it will be designated and regulated as a VLOP. Hence Breton’s quick schooling of Musk last week — when, in response to Musk’s “free speech” base-inflaming “the bird is freed” tweet, the commissioner pointedly rejoined: “In Europe the bird will fly by our [EU] rules.” Musk did not respond publicly to Breton’s schooling at the time. But, according to a Reuters report today, he reached out to the Commission to “assure” it the platform will