Disinformation experts warn of the risk of fake news on social networks following the dismissal of half the staff of the company bought by Elon Musk.
A great wave of layoffs that is worrying. A week after Elon Musk took over Twitter, about 50% of the company’s employees worldwide were laid off, or nearly 3,750. “Unfortunately, there is no other choice when the company loses more than $ 4 million a day. All those who lost their jobs were offered three months of compensation “explained the entrepreneur on the social network this Saturday.
Following the layoffs, disinformation pundits urged “caution” on Twitter this weekend, just days before the US midterm elections. “You will have to be very careful on this platform in the next few days … What you retweet about, which account you follow and in relation to your perception of what is happening”for example affirmed Kate Starbird, researcher on disinformation at the University of Washington. He fears that malicious people will usurp the identity of others or carry it out “Coordinated disinformation campaigns”.
Concerns about content moderation
The concerns of the experts are justified. In fact, among the dismissed employees are the people responsible for moderating content on Twitter. Yoel Roth, head of network security, tried to reassure that the Trust and Safety team only had 15% of departures and that frontline staff were the least affected. She also insured it “Most of the moderation skills remained in place” and that the daily volume of moderation had remained “Stable” this week. “Our efforts to support electoral integrity, including the fight against disinformation to discourage voting and foreign influence operations, remain a top priority.”further stated Yoel Roth.
The curating team, in particular responsible for highlighting authoritative information, has been completely eliminated. The head of public policy was also affected by this massive wave of layoffs, with half of which she was fired. This includes Michele Austin, director of regulations for the United States and Canada, who worked on the midterm elections. Fears of disinformation about the latter should not reassure advertisers, who, remember, generate 90% of Twitter’s revenue, and are increasingly likely to suspend their ads on social networks. After the automaker General Motors, it was Volkswagen, Pfizer and the American food giant General Mills (Cheerios, Haägen-Dazs, etc.) that made this decision. Civil rights groups have also called on the top 20 advertisers, such as Apple, CBS and Disney, to do the same.
Elon Muskfor his part, he accused, on Friday, these activists of causing the company’s revenue to fall by doing “pressure on advertisers even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we have done everything to appease activists”. He also claimed that hate speech has declined on the social network in the past week, but with no data to prove it.
