How Elon Musk's Twitter acquisition may affect the midterms

  • 📰 ABC7Chicago
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 86 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 38%
  • Publisher: 63%

United States News News

United States United States Latest News,United States United States Headlines

After Elon Musk laid off thousands from Twitter's staff, worries amass about how the platform will handle misinformation ahead of the 2022 midterms.

About half of twitters workforce was let go by owner Elon Musk, which is one of the many changes within Twitter recently. Bill Ritter has the story.

Musk promised not to alter any of Twitter's content policies until after the midterms. But the changes he has already made to the company have left it weakened and vulnerable, said Paul Barrett, deputy director of New York University's Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. "We don't flag anything to platforms around misinformation, disinformation," Jen Easterly, director of the US government's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency , told CNN Saturday evening. "That is entirely up to those platforms - Twitter, social media - based on their terms of service and how they enforce it.

But while Twitter's cuts to its content moderation workforce may have been less severe than at other parts of the company, the broad layoffs in certain cases eliminated whole teams, some with important roles to play in election coverage. "He cannot enforce content moderation policies if he doesn't have the staff to do so," said Jessica González, co-CEO of Free Press. Civil rights groups have spearheaded a campaign targeting Twitter's largest advertisers, calling on them to pause their ad spend on the platform. Already this past week, major brands including General Mills and Audi have suspended their Twitter advertising, contributing to what Musk has called a steep revenue decline at the company.

Esther Crawford, a director of product management at Twitter, confirmed the service was not yet live, writing on Saturday in a tweet: "The new Blue isn't live yet - the sprint to our launch continues but some folks may see us making updates because we are testing and pushing changes in real-time."

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 284. in US
 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

Worried about misinformation when Deep State shills get the axe? You're too funny, CIAMockingbirdMedia!

More importantly those laid off can make solar panels! LOL

Like you guys do, not bother to fact check or scrutinize, after all scandal means money for your station.

Misinformation like the Hunter Biden laptop? It’s clear you hacks are bought and paid for propagandists who hate anyone that threatens your controlled narrative.

Fake news. Reported.

Who is worried?

...persistent log-in’s did the trick, ;)

I was blocked by Twitter because I’m a Democrat

Like Hunter Biden’s laptop the previous people labeled “Misinformation “?

They are actually doing better than ever😊

Yeah that 12 hours is gonna be rough 😂

ABC definition of misinformation = Anything damning to democrats.

It's not Twitter's job to monitor misinformation.

Well there are only 23 hours left so ....

The Dems are all of sudden worried about voting machines too, I hear.

United States United States Latest News, United States United States Headlines