The New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has called for Elon Musk to take on the “huge responsibility” of controlling a social media platform and “stick strongly to the principle of transparency”, after the billionaire took control of Twitter.
Ardern was speaking at a summit on national security, disinformation and online extremism when she was asked about Musk’s purchase of the company and his recent online behaviour.
“While I haven’t had any opportunity to engage directly with Mr Musk, the point that I would make is that social media and platforms like Twitter have a huge responsibility. They can be a force for democracy, a force for connection and for good. But also, if misused, they can do a huge amount of harm,” Ardern said.
“My hope would be that he would stick strongly to the principle of transparency. Because that is one of the things that he has claimed he is focused on. We are too.”
In her speech at the counter-terrorism summit, Ardern said online disinformation was a top concern for New Zealanders, with one in four saying disinformation was the greatest security threat to them and their families. “We are particularly concerned about the challenge of disinformation as we see this exacerbating a number of national security issues,” Ardern said.
“It is impacting liberal democracies worldwide, eroding trust in institutions, and our ability to respond to it as a society is being tested.”
After the March 15 mosque terror attacks, where a white supremacist killed 51 Muslims worshipping in Christchurch in 2019, Ardern launched the “Christchurch Call”, asking social media companies to counter online extremism and misinformation. The mosque attack was livestreamed on multiple social media platforms, and the terrorist’s manifesto published online. Twitter founder Jack Dorsey had supported Ardern’s “Christchurch Call”, and the platform has been a partner with the initiative.
“Twitter is one of the organisations that has been deeply involved in the Christchurch Call to Action and – to date – been a really constructive partner,” Ardern said. She went on to say that the partnership was now in “unknown territory”.
Musk, the world’s richest man, completed his purchase of Twitter for $44bn (£38bn) last week. The takeover by the self-described “free speech absolutist” has prompted concerns from advocates and world leaders that the company would roll back safety and content moderation rules and bring back extremist or banned accounts. Musk has appointed himself CEO and dissolved its board of directors.
Shortly after Musk took the helm of the company, the accounts of Britain First, an extreme group whose leader has spent time in jail for hate crimes against Muslims, rejoined the social media network. It had been banned in 2017 under Twitter’s hate speech rules after posting inflammatory anti-Muslim videos. Earlier this year Musk said he would reverse the ban on Donald Trump’s account. Trump’s account was suspended in January 2021, after the storming of the Capitol, with the company citing breaches of its rules and concerns over “further incitement of violence”.
Musk was criticised on Sunday after posting a baseless conspiracy theory about the assault of Paul Pelosi, husband of Nancy Pelosi, to Twitter. He later deleted the tweet.
