Elon Musk is creating a Twitter content moderation board to unblock Donald Trump’s account
Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, announced the creation of a special board to make important moderation decisions in the company.
In a tweet on Friday, Musk said the board would have ‘very diverse’ viewpoints and added that no major decisions about the content of tweets or account recovery would be made until it is there.
A few hours later, he clarified his statement:
Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints.
No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022
One of Musk’s arguments for buying Twitter was his desire to make a ‘platform for free speech.’ The billionaire also said that he would consider returning to the social network such controversial figures as former US President Donald Trump. Judging by Ilona’s latest announcement, this decision will be made by the newly formed council.
No details on how many members will be on the board, how they will be elected, or how the body will differ from the content moderation and policy teams (which already exist at the company) have not been released. However, Musk has made it clear that he disagrees with how the current moderation systems work (when he took control of the company, he immediately fired several executives, including the company’s head of policy, Vijaya Gadde, whom he had publicly criticized in the past).
Other social media companies have tried what appears to be a similar approach—Meta has its own supervisory board that governs Facebook and makes moderation decisions (but its work has always raised questions). There is also a web of laws that could potentially dictate how tech companies can moderate their platforms. And that could limit the moderation decisions Twitter and other platforms can make, regardless of what “free speech” ideals they aspire to.
There are other changes that await the company with the arrival of Musk. The Washington Post reported that Musk planned to lay off 75% of Twitter’s workforce, citing valuations given to the company’s potential investors. Elon told staff that 75% was not the right number. In correspondence with his friend, entrepreneur Jason Calakanis, represented by Twitter lawyers, the billionaire discussed the downsizing with a proposal to ‘bring employees back to the offices’ (which would mean that 20% of employees would leave voluntarily).
Another of Musk’s ideas is to implement a stack ranking system (leaders in teams should rate the employees working under their leadership as the best, good, average or bad). This practice famously ended at Microsoft in 2013 because it contributed to a bad culture and reduced staff numbers.
While Elon said the acquisition of Twitter was not a ‘monetization’ for him, he also told investors that he plans to double revenue in three years and triple the number of daily users who can view ads over the same period, though he did not provide specifics. About how to achieve the goals. Governments and corporations may also be charged a ‘small fee’ for using Twitter.
