UN asks Elon Musk to safeguard human rights amid Twitter layoff
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Geneva: Twitter has started the process of laying off 50% of its workforce after new owner Elon Musk said it is necessary to cope with the "massive drop in revenue." The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk responded to it in an open letter and asked to ensure human rights are central to the management of Twitter.
He added that the layoff that started on Friday is not "an encouraging start." Turk described Twitter to be part of a global revolution that transformed how people communicate. "Like all companies, Twitter needs to understand the harms associated with its platform and take steps to address them. Respect for our shared human rights should set the guardrails for the platform's use and evolution," reported Reuters.
Turk noted that laying off the entire human rights team is not an encouraging start from his perspective. He added that he is writing with concern and apprehension about digital public square and Twitter's role in it. The UN official also warned against propagating hate speech and misinformation. He further said free speech is not a "free pass" and stressed the need to protect user privacy, reported The Guardian.
"Twitter has a responsibility to avoid amplifying content that results in harm to people's rights. There is no place for the hatred that incites discrimination, hostility, or violence on Twitter. Hate speech has spread like wildfire on social media … with horrific, life-threatening consequences. It is vital that Twitter refrains from invasive user tracking and amassing related data and that it resists, to the fullest extent possible under applicable laws, unjustified requests from governments for user data," he wrote in the open letter.
He also urged Twitter to stand up for the rights to privacy and free expression to the fullest extent possible, under relevant laws, and to transparently report on government pressures that would infringe those rights.
"Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation. And we did everything we could to appease the activists. Extremely messed up! They are trying to destroy free speech in America," Musk tweeted on Friday.
Twitter laid off the majority of its 200 employees across engineering, sales, and marketing & communication teams in India. Musk fired CEO Parag Agrawal, legal executive Vijaya Gadde, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, and General Counsel Sean Edgett soon after completing the acquisition.
A day after Twitter fired nearly 50% of its staff worldwide, founder Jack Dorsey who left the board in May 2022 said that he realises many people are angry with him. He owned up to the current situation and said folks at Twitter are strong and resilient. "They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment. I realize many are angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that," he tweeted.