About 100 people were estimated to be working on the Trust and Safety Council
(Picture: Twitter)Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council has been dissolved shortly before it was due to meet company representatives, according to Reuters.
The group was disbanded following an email sent to its members by Twitter, which said the group was no longer fit for purpose but welcomes the members’ “ideas going forwards”.
The Trust and Safety Council consisted of an estimated 100 people associated with human rights and civil rights organisations. Their aim was to aid in strategies to tackle hate speech, suicide, self-harm and child exploitation issues on the platform.
“Many of us have been in this space for a number of years, each with different expertise, but all with a passion to see healthy and diverse conversations and safety exist on platforms,” former council member and Diana Award deputy CEO Alex Holmes wrote on Twitter. “The way this has unfolded and way members have been treated is unfortunate and unacceptable.”
Several members of the Trust and Safety Council resigned in the days leading up to the group’s dissolution.
Former member Anne Collier posted a statement on December 8, which read “contrary to claims by Elon Musk, the safety and wellbeing of Twitter’s users are on the decline”.
The statement, signed by three members, suggested Elon Musk has dismantled the safeguarding infrastructure at Twitter, and that content moderation is now being run under his “diktat”.
Musk has recently tweeted about his intention to defeat the “woke mind virus”, and was booed off stage at a Dave Chapelle stand-up comedy gig in San Francisco.
The dissolution of Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council lands one month after the platform’s head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth, resigned, on November 10.
Roth has reportedly just fled his home in San Francisco, following baseless tweets from Elon Musk over the weekend that appeared to suggest the former safeguarding specialist condoned child sexual activity. This led to death threats from Musk’s followers.
