UN urges Elon Musk to ensure Twitter respects human rights | World Info

UN rights chief Volker Turk on Saturday urged Twitter’s new proprietor Elon Musk to make respect for human rights central to the social neighborhood after he sacked spherical half the company’s employees.

Experiences of Musk shedding the platform’s whole human rights group had been “not, from my perspective, an encouraging start”, Turk said in an open letter.

The United Nations Extreme Commissioner for Human Rights said he was writing with “concern and apprehension about our digital public sq. and Twitter’s place in it”.

He warned in the direction of propagating hate speech and misinformation and highlighted the need to defend client privateness.

Musk, the richest specific individual on the planet, took administration of the platform per week previously in a contentious deal.

After ending his mammoth $44 billion acquisition, Musk shortly set about dissolving Twitter’s board and sacking its chief govt and prime managers.

Twitter on Friday fired roughly half of its 7,500-strong workforce.

“Like all companies, Twitter needs to know the harms associated to its platform and take steps to deal with them,” wrote Turk.

“Respect for our shared human rights should set the guardrails for the platform’s use and evolution. Briefly, I urge you to ensure human rights are central to the administration of Twitter beneath your administration.”

Turk posted the open letter on Twitter, the place he has larger than 25,000 followers.

Turk, an Austrian longtime UN official who took up his put up as a result of the UN rights chief on October 17, spelt out some primary human rights guidelines, urging Musk to put them on the coronary coronary heart of Twitter’s administration going forward.

‘Horrific’ penalties

Turk urged Twitter to face up for the rights to privateness and free expression to the fullest extent potential, beneath associated authorized tips, and to transparently report on authorities pressures which will infringe these rights.

Nevertheless he said free speech “is simply not a free cross”, saying that the viral unfold of harmful disinformation, as seen all through the Covid-19 pandemic, resulted in real-world harms.

“Twitter has a accountability to avoid amplifying content material materials that ends in harms to people’s rights,” Turk said.

“There isn’t a spot for hatred that incites discrimination, hostility or violence on Twitter.

“Hate speech has unfold like wildfire on social media… with horrific, life-threatening penalties.”

Twitter should because of this reality proceed to bar such hatred on the platform, whereas every effort should be made to remove such content material materials promptly, said Turk.

He moreover said free speech trusted the environment friendly security of privateness.

“It’s necessary that Twitter refrain from invasive client monitoring and amassing related information and that it resist, to the fullest extent potential beneath related authorized tips, unjustified requests from governments for client information,” Turk said.

He said evaluation was necessary to know the affect of social media on societies, and because of this reality urged Musk to maintain up entry to Twitter’s information through its open utility programming interfaces.

Lastly, he pressured that Twitter should have content material materials moderation functionality in all languages and contexts, not merely within the US or in English-language content material materials.