Taxpayer-funded outlet NPR rounded up the opinions of human rights advocates to alarm readers that Twitter under Elon Musk’s ownership could exacerbate "political, ethnic and religious conflicts" around the world.
NPR’s piece is the latest in a long line of media hit pieces finding danger in the Tesla CEO’s handling of the social media platform.
On Tuesday, the Washington Post’s Taylor Lorenz spoke to "experts" who claimed Musk’s decision to remove Twitter's COVID misinformation policy in recent weeks would lead to "more deaths."
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The NPR article set the stage with a brief description of how Twitter has gone wrong under Musk. It stated, "Impersonators paying for blue ‘verified’ checkmarks. A decimated team of workers enforcing rules against hate speech and other violating posts. A mass reporting campaign by right-wing activists targeting political opponents. "
The piece named these as the "chaotic changes unleashed by Elon Musk" that "are at risk of getting even worse under its new billionaire owner, according to human rights and freedom of expression advocates."
The first of these advocates featured in the piece, Equality Labs executive director Thenmozhi Soundararajan, claimed, "I think Musk lacks the cultural competency, he's not getting proper legal advice around this issue, and so he's endangering millions of people's lives just for his whims."
NPR noted that activists find Musk’s Twitter policies dangerous, particularly for people outside the U.S. It claimed, "activists and advocates point to a wealth of examples of how social media has enabled and exacerbated political, ethnic and religious conflicts, from genocide in Myanmar to mob killings in India to civil war in Ethiopia."
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It also noted the global angst over the billionaire’s plan to grant amnesty to previously banned accounts, stating the notion is "escalating alarm about how the platform could be abused."
Citing stats from tech outlet "Platformer," NPR stated, "The company has already begun to reinstate some 62,000 accounts with more than 10,000 followers." It then quoted UNC Chapel Hill professor Shannon McGregor, who complained about dealing with these reinstatements.
She said, "Twitter and every other platform have always struggled to effectively enforce content moderation guidelines and other policies outside of the U.S. and especially in non-Western countries."
McGregor added, "Twitter and every other platform have always struggled to effectively enforce content moderation guidelines and other policies outside of the U.S. and especially in non-Western countries."
NPR noted that "Twitter's human rights team is gone. So is a group of investigators tracking state-backed domestic manipulation efforts in high-risk countries including Honduras, Ethiopia and India, according to a former employee."
It then quoted Soundararajan, who claimed, "Before Musk acquired Twitter, it was understood within the company that markets in South Asia, including India, were countries in which mass atrocity was agreed to be occurring...One tweet could set off a pogrom." The implication was that after Musk, Twitter isn’t being as careful about such dangers.
The piece also knocked Twitter’s new feature of allowing "anyone to buy an $8 monthly subscription and receive a blue checkmark with no identity verification," stating, "Former employees and experts warn the risk of abuse is high, especially by those seeking to use the feature to influence public conversation, given that subscribers are being promised greater amplification on Twitter."
The piece quoted Joan Donovan, a research director at Harvard's Shorenstein Center, who claimed, "The possibility for different kinds of media manipulation and disinformation campaigns to proliferate is enormous."
NPR closed with the frustration of those who believe non-Americans won’t get the same treatment on Twitter as Americans do. Choudhary told the outlet that Musk’s "free speech concerns seem to have only been about the people he thinks should be on this platform, who are U.S.-centric people with a certain kind of politics."
She added, "I rely on the fact that Twitter does not cave in to the pressure of my government and continues to allow me to speak, no matter what I'm speaking against them. I don't think that he has shown any indication that he's going to be able to do that."
