A sizzling potato: As Elon Musk reduces Twitter’s content material moderation to make the platform a bastion of free speech whereas additionally reducing its workforce, one of many European Union’s high officers has warned the billionaire might be inadvertently serving to Vladimir Putin by not eradicating Russian propaganda referring to the warfare in Ukraine.
European Fee Vice President Vera Jourova informed Bloomberg that failing to deal with on-line disinformation may “result in the very fast abuse” of Twitter.
“By not performing actively towards the propaganda, which implies to take away the items of propaganda, the disinformation, then you might be actively supporting the warfare,” she mentioned. “This could be a really difficult and possibly harmful endeavor or journey for Mr. Musk,” who “desires to be seen as any individual who helps Ukraine.”
Musk’s SpaceX firm has provided Ukraine with over 25,000 Starlink floor terminals for the reason that warfare started in Ukraine, serving to maintain its residents and navy on-line. He famous that creating, launching, sustaining, and replenishing satellites and floor stations, in addition to paying telcos for entry to the web through gateways, prices SpaceX near $20 million per 30 days. Musk had warned that the continued prices may see this generosity finish, however he backtracked and mentioned SpaceX would fund Starlink in Ukraine “indefinitely.”
Twitter has already been criticized for failing to cease the circulation of an antisemitic cartoon posted by Russian diplomats on the official account of the Russian Embassy in London.
Russian Embassy making an attempt to win the meme warfare with open antisemitism. pic.twitter.com/vc9V7xrEdP
— Joan Donovan BOOK: Meme Wars (@BostonJoan) November 22, 2022
Musk has lengthy promised to cut back moderation on Twitter and has been reinstating beforehand banned accounts. He is additionally slashed the corporate’s headcount by greater than half, impacting its means to establish and take away dangerous content material. The scenario is worrying advertisers, together with Apple, whom Musk says has threatened to drop the app from its retailer—the world’s richest man mentioned he would construct his personal cellphone if this occurs.
Musk misplaced a lot of the goodwill he earned from the individuals of Ukraine after he tweeted a peace plan ballot that introduced offended reactions, together with one from the nation’s president. He additionally needed to deny experiences that he not too long ago spoke to Vladimir Putin about using nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
Bloomberg notes that failure to adjust to present and upcoming EU legal guidelines associated to dangerous on-line content material may see Twitter hit with fines equal to a proportion of the corporate’s international gross sales, which might be the very last thing the corporate wants after Musk warned that chapter is not an impossibility.