Elon Musk's new and improved Twitter has no place for trust and safety council

Ever since Tesla CEO Elon Musk took over Twitter, one of the key worries has been human rights concerns and hate speech, given Twitter's potential to make or break anything. In the latest from the Twitter HQ, Musk has dissolved its Trust and Safety Council via mail.  

What? The Trust and Safety Council is an advisory volunteer group of around 100 independent civil, human rights and other organisations that the company formed in 2016 to address hate speech, child exploitation, suicide, self-harm and other problems on the platform.  

According to AP, the council was supposed to meet Twitter representatives Monday night, and just shortly before the meeting was to take place, the members were informed via mail that the council was dissolved. 

Twitter has dissolved the Trust & Safety Council pic.twitter.com/R2wS9BsqA2

— Anthony DeRosa (@Anthony) December 13, 2022

Reason: According to Twitter, it was "reevaluating how best to bring external insights" and the council is "not the best structure to do this".

Previous clashes with the council: Last Thursday, December 8, three members of the council, Eirliani Abdul Rahman, Anne Collier and Lesley Podesta resigned from the council claiming that the safety and well-being of Twitter users are on the decline, contrary to the claims of Elon Musk. They also pointed out while resigning that Musk's whole approach towards the 'freedom of expression' is wrong.

Here's the tweet: 

Three of us resigned from Twitter’s Trust & Safety Council today: @eirliani @podesta_lesley and me. Here’s why https://t.co/h05TblfGIO pic.twitter.com/iqcHvhbgms

— annecollier (@annecollier) December 8, 2022

Elon Musk's response caused all hell to break loose: Due to Musk's Twitter reaction to the above post, all three former employees received a lot of criticism from users on Twitter. 

Out of the three, Rahman and Collier were part of the council since its inception and did oversee child exploitation on Twitter. Following the resignation and criticism by people, Twitter representatives invited the council to a meeting, which was supposed to take place yesterday, where the Twitter team promised an open dialogue, with 'Q&A sessions', but ended up dissolving the council itself, just before the team meeting. 

If we cant protect innocent children , nothing else matters. @elonmusk Keep Fighting! https://t.co/I0CzGkKeQD

— Scorpio ♏️ (@passivec) December 10, 2022

Here's what you will see if you search for Twitter Trust and Safety Council on Twitter's help page: 

Not the first time though… Musk loves to keep the drama up on Twitter, but removing committees and councils that promote human rights activities can invite unwanted problems, according to experts.  

Previously, when Musk sacked half of all Twitter employees in the month of November, he also sacked the entire human rights team at the company and all but two members of its ethical AI team.

The UN Human Rights Chief,  Volker Turk, issued an open letter in response to Musk's action, urging him to "ensure human rights are central" to the management of his new company, Twitter. 

The developments are not "an encouraging start," said Volker Turk.