SAN FRANCISCO: The future of Twitter’s top lawyer, widely seen as the platform’s moral champion, was cast into doubt on Wednesday after billionaire Elon Musk expressed discontent with the content moderation regime she had created.
When he assumes control of the worldwide microblogging platform as part of a $44 billion purchase, Musk, the world’s richest man, has pledged to be a free speech absolutist.
Vijaya Gadde, a lawyer, has led efforts to combat bullying and posts that have the potential to cause real-world harm, such as the attack on the US Capitol by supporters of former US President Donald Trump.
She was also involved in decisions such as banning Trump from Twitter for initiating the January 6 incident and removing political advertising from the network.
Musk chastised Gadde on Tuesday for his role in removing a New York Post piece about President Joe Biden’s son Hunter’s overseas business dealings ahead of the 2020 election.
In a tweet in response to another user’s post that contained a Politico piece outlining how Gadde cried at a discussion about the Musk acquisition, the billionaire remarked that blocking the story was “very inappropriate.”
Musk then went on to retweet a Gadde meme while accusing Twitter of having a “left-wing bias,” prompting former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo to respond with a question about what he was attempting to achieve.
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In a Twitter response to Musk, Costolo wrote, “You’re making an executive at the company you just bought the focus of abuse and threats.”
Musk’s attack has been criticised.
Musk’s criticism of Twitter’s content moderation raises concerns that he could veto suggestions from the team entrusted with defining policy and procedure, according to Katie Harbath, a former public policy director at Meta Platform Inc’s Facebook who now runs the consultancy Anchor Change.
According to Harbath, one significant concern is whether Musk will “change employees inside of Twitter with people who agree with his beliefs.” Others feared that under Musk, Twitter’s efforts to combat abuse, misogyny, and disinformation might regress.
“Musk’s daily activities on Twitter aggravate the worst parts of the site and devalue the positive work that Twitter employees have been doing,” Adam Conner, vice president for technology policy at the Center for American Progress, stated. While Musk’s Twitter activity is drawing additional attention as a result of his deal to buy the firm on Monday, the world’s richest man is no stranger to controversy and criticism on the network.
Musk chastised Missy Cummings, a Duke University professor chosen as an advisor by the US car safety regulator, in a tweet last October, which was followed by personal assaults on Cummings online. Cummings, a longtime critic of Tesla’s driver assistance software, later cancelled her Twitter account.
Musk referred to a British diver as a “pedo man” in 2018 after he dismissed Musk’s plan to use SpaceX’s mini-submarine to rescue a boys’ soccer team stranded in a cave in Thailand.
