Twitter is scrambling to respond to political misinformation and other harmful posts on the social media platform after Elon Musk laid off roughly half of its workforce just days before the U.S. midterm elections, according to employees who survived the layoffs and an outside group for voting rights.
The recent mass layoffs spared many of the people whose job it is to keep hate and misinformation off the social media platform. Musk cut only 15% of those moderate front-line workers, compared with roughly 50% job cuts companywide, an executive said last week.
But in preparation for the layoffs, employees said the company also significantly reduced the number of employees who can view a specific account’s digital history and behavior — a practice necessary to investigate whether it has been used maliciously and take action. to suspend it. The company said it froze access to those tools to reduce “internal risk” in a time of transition.
The developments are causing concern as the US midterm elections culminate on Tuesday. Although millions of Americans have already cast early and absentee ballots, millions more are expected to head to the polls to cast ballots in person. Election observers fear the platform may not be equipped to handle hate speech, misinformation that could affect voter safety and security, and actors seeking to cast doubt on the legitimate winners of nationwide elections.
Researchers tracking disinformation ahead of the midterm elections notified Twitter on Friday of three tweets from prominent far-right figures that made disputed claims of election fraud. Posts remain open three days later. When Common Cause asked Twitter for an update on Monday, the platform said the posts were “under review.”
Before Musk took over, Twitter was much quicker to respond, said Jesse Littlewood, vice president of campaigns at Common Cause. The group said they had been in regular contact with Twitter staff before Musk took over. Now, they are getting a reply from a generic email address.
“We were getting decisions much faster than them, sometimes within hours,” Littlewood said. Now, he said, “It’s like pushing the button for a walk sign at a stop light and nothing’s happening.”
Musk destroyed teams working on marketing, communications and editorial curation of what people see on Twitter. But his decision to keep most of Twitter’s content moderation team came as a welcome surprise to some inside and outside the company. Musk, after all, promised to let free speech flourish by lifting Twitter’s content restrictions and reinstating accounts banned for violating those rules. It has also pledged to end the current user verification system in favor of a $7.99 subscription fee.
