UN urges Elon Musk to make sure Twitter respects human rights | World News

UN rights chief Volker Turk on Saturday urged Twitter's new proprietor Elon Musk to make respect for human rights central to the social community after he sacked round half the corporate's workers.

Studies of Musk shedding the platform's total human rights crew had been "not, from my perspective, an encouraging begin", Turk stated in an open letter.

The United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights stated he was writing with "concern and apprehension about our digital public sq. and Twitter's position in it".

He warned in opposition to propagating hate speech and misinformation and highlighted the necessity to shield person privateness.

Musk, the richest particular person on this planet, took management of the platform per week in the past in a contentious deal.

After finishing his mammoth $44 billion acquisition, Musk rapidly set about dissolving Twitter's board and sacking its chief government and prime managers.

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

"Like all firms, Twitter wants to grasp the harms related to its platform and take steps to deal with them," wrote Turk.

"Respect for our shared human rights ought to set the guardrails for the platform's use and evolution. In brief, I urge you to make sure human rights are central to the administration of Twitter underneath your management."

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

Turk, an Austrian longtime UN official who took up his publish because the UN rights chief on October 17, spelt out some basic human rights ideas, urging Musk to place them on the coronary heart of Twitter's administration going ahead.

‘Horrific’ penalties

Turk urged Twitter to face up for the rights to privateness and free expression to the fullest extent doable, underneath related legal guidelines, and to transparently report on authorities pressures that might infringe these rights.

However he stated free speech "is just not a free cross", saying that the viral unfold of dangerous disinformation, as seen through the Covid-19 pandemic, resulted in real-world harms.

"Twitter has a accountability to keep away from amplifying content material that leads to harms to individuals's rights," Turk stated.

"There isn't any place 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 ought to due to this fact proceed to bar such hatred on the platform, whereas each effort must be made to take away such content material promptly, stated Turk.

He additionally stated free speech relied on the efficient safety of privateness.

"It's critical that Twitter chorus from invasive person monitoring and amassing associated information and that it resist, to the fullest extent doable underneath relevant legal guidelines, unjustified requests from governments for person information," Turk stated.

He stated analysis was important to grasp the influence of social media on societies, and due to this fact urged Musk to take care of entry to Twitter's information by way of its open software programming interfaces.

Lastly, he careworn that Twitter ought to have content material moderation capability in all languages and contexts, not simply in the USA or in English-language content material.