When we held up a mirror to Elon Musk’s Twitter/X he tried to sue us into silence | Imran Ahmed | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/06/when-we-held-up-a-mirror-to-elon-musks-twitterx-he-tried-to-sue-us-into-silenceThe CCDH has been at the forefront of reporting on the hate proliferating on X/Twitter since Musk completed his takeover in late October 2022.
Our reporting has shown that, under his watch, the number of tweets containing slurs has risen by up to 202%; that tweets linking LGBTQ+ people to “child grooming” have more than doubled; demonstrated that climate denial content and accounts are surging; and revealed Twitter’s failure to act on hate posted by Twitter Blue subscribers. Members of Twitter’s own trust and safety council have resigned, citing CCDH findings, and our research has been widely reported by news outlets around the world.
CCDH holds up a mirror to social media platforms and asks them to consider whether or not they like the reflection they see in it. We are proud of our record of investigating and raising the alarm whenever and wherever we discover the proliferation of serious harms on Twitter/X, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Google, YouTube and other platforms.
Musk didn’t like what he saw in the mirror. But rather than take responsibility and admit the problem, he is trying to sue the mirror.
...
This was noted by three US legislators on Capitol Hill last week, who wrote an excoriating letter to Musk condemning X’s “hostile stance” towards independent research efforts, and for “uniquely resisting” researchers’ efforts to hold social media platforms accountable. Representatives Lori Trahan, Adam B Schiff and Sean Casten also pressed him for clarity around X’s decision to drastically restrict data access for this kind of research, reiterating a request that has gone unanswered by the company since March 2023. In the UK, Lucy Powell, the shadow digital, culture, media and sport secretary, noted that “we desperately need the online safety bill to put rules in place, so powerful platforms don’t act on the whims of one man”. Powell and others are spot on in this assessment. Tech executives operate with impunity because there are no rules keeping them in check. Until the world’s governments pass legislation built around the principles of safety by product design, transparency, accountability and responsibility, we will be forced to live with the negative consequences of tech’s failures – with no recourse or democratic oversight.