Twitter takeover: fears raised over disinformation and hate speech

Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition has been polarizing, sparking reactions from politicians, regulators and non-profits across different continents.

Some have expressed concerns about potential changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies now that it’s in the hands of the Tesla billionaire, while others celebrated how they expect the platform’s newly minted leader will handle content and speech on Twitter.

Senior politicians in the UK and Europe on Friday warned Musk over content moderation on Twitter, with the EU stressing the platform will “fly by our rules” and a UK minister expressing concerns over hate speech under the billionaire’s ownership.

The EU’s internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton, wrote on the platform on Friday that “in Europe, the bird will fly by our rules”, in response to Musk’s earlier tweet saying “the bird is freed” in apparent confirmation that he had bought the business.

The EU is introducing the Digital Services Act, which includes provisions for removal of illegal content including hate speech.

The UK government flagged its own concerns on Friday, as the environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, said it would be “concerning” if a relaxation of content moderation led to a proliferation on hate speech on the platform.

“I think that would be concerning and it’s important that people have these platforms [and] use them responsibly rather than to promulgate hate speech,” she told Sky News.

Coffey added that the online safety bill, a landmark piece of legislation in the country tackling online hate speech, will return to parliament next week. However, it is understood that the bill will remain on pause after the government delayed its passage again this week.

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, tweeted on Friday: “Any decision about allowing suspended users to return must be taken incredibly carefully & in direct consultation with experts in countering digital hate & misinformation.”

One internet safety campaigner said on Friday that the deal could “unravel” Twitter’s work on improving the platform, after reports that Musk has already fired the company’s head of legal policy, trust and safety, Vijaya Gadde.

Seyi Akiwowo, head of Glitch, a UK-based charity that campaigns against online abuse, said Gadde’s removal was a backwards step.

She tweeted: “I am very concerned that the progress Twitter has finally made on safety over the last 6 years will unravel in the next few weeks.”

In the US, civil rights organizations warned of harmful content on the platform, while Republicans celebrated the change in ownership.

The firing of Gadde sparked concern among civil liberties groups that fought for Trump’s Twitter ban, such as Muslim Advocates.

“Elon Musk claims that he doesn’t want Twitter to become a ‘free-for-all hellscape’ but he would guarantee that outcome by letting white nationalist hatemongers back on the platform and pushing out the staff responsible for policing hate content,” said Muslim Advocates’ senior policy counsel, Sumayyah Waheed. “This is not about left v right political brinkmanship or collegiate debates over free speech. This is about the safety of communities of color, people of minority faiths and other marginalized communities who are already under assault.”

The first amendment campaign group Pen America said that the platform must not allow disinformation – the deliberate distribution of false information – to flourish ahead of the midterm elections on 8 November.

Suzanne Nossel, the organization’s chief executive, said she would look for signs that Musk is willing to “learn the intricacies of a platform used worldwide with sometimes life or death consequences”.

She added: “With the election two weeks out, a pivotal indicator will be whether purveyors of disinformation are given free rein to mislead people over Twitter about when, where and how to vote.”

Angelo Carusone, the president of US media watchdog group Media Matters, feared the ownership change will “radically transform the current information landscape”, adding he, too, was deeply concerned the change was happening just days before the midterm elections.

“It is only a matter of time before Musk rolls back Twitter’s community standards, fires employees responsible for protecting users’ safety, and re-platforms Donald Trump and other accounts suspended for violence and abuse, and opens the floodgates of disinformation,” Carusone said in a statement. “Simply put: Twitter is now on a glide path to becoming a supercharged engine of radicalization. Under Musk’s leadership, Twitter will become a fever swamp of dangerous conspiracy theories, partisan chicanery, and operationalized harassment.”

Whether the former US president will be allowed back to the platform after he was permanently banned from Twitter in the days after the 6 January insurrection animated many of the online conversations in the US on Friday. Earlier this year, Musk said he would reverse that ban.

Non-profit watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington asked if Musk was prepared to respond if Trump directed his supporters to attack the government on Twitter.

“If you don’t have a great immediate answer, then it’s best to keep him off,” the organization tweeted.

On, Thursday Musk had attempted to play down concerns over harmful content. In a message to Twitter’s advertising clients, he tweeted that the platform “obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape” and the platform must be “warm and welcoming to all”.

But Musk’s very first public statement on Friday morning was to promise pseudonymous Maga influencer “Catturd” that he would be “digging in” to why the user’s account is “shadowbanned” – not showing up in search results. With 850,000 followers, the account is one of the more prominent on the US right.

Sanjay Bhandari, the chair of football’s anti-racism organization, Kick It Out, said Musk must not let “super trolls” like Trump back on to the platform before introducing technical fixes that shield users from harmful content.

Bhandari said Musk’s statement that users can “choose your experience according to your desired preferences” must be followed up by action.

“Before Musk enables the super trolls, he must implement the technological changes that enable us to have the experience that we want on the platform and not have abuse forced on us,” he added.

Meanwhile, some Republican politicians celebrated Musk’s Twitter acquisition. Trump himself said on Truth Social that he was very “happy that Twitter is now in sane hands, and will no longer be run by the Radical Left”.

Congress members Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert lauded the move as a boon to freedom of speech. “Free speech. Liberal tears,” Jordan tweeted.

Guardian reporter Johana Bhuiyan contributed to this report