UN Urges Musk to Ensure Fundamental Human Rights in Twitter Management
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk on Saturday issued an open letter to the new CEO of Twitter, Elon Musk and urged him to “make sure that human rights are central to the management of Twitter,” following reports of layoffs. rights microblogging site rights team.
“In short, I urge you to ensure that human rights are central to the management of Twitter under your leadership,” Türk said in the letter.
“Twitter is part of a global revolution that has changed the way we communicate. But I write with concern and fear about our digital social scene and Twitter’s role in it,” said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in a letter.
“Like all companies, Twitter needs to understand the risks associated with its platform and take steps to deal with them. Respecting our shared human rights should limit the use of the platform and its evolution,” he added.
In his letter, Türk urged Twitter to stand up for the rights to privacy and free speech as fully as possible, under the relevant laws, and to report openly on government requests that may violate those rights.
The viral spread of dangerous disinformation, such as that seen during the COVID-19 pandemic regarding vaccines, results in real-world harm. Twitter has a responsibility to avoid promoting content that infringes on the rights of others.
In the letter, he went on to say that there is no place for hate that incites racism, enmity or violence on Twitter.
“Research is essential to better understand the impact of social media on our societies. Maintain access to Twitter data through open application programming interfaces (APIs),” said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Free speech depends on effective privacy protections. It is important that Twitter avoids invasive user tracking and related data collection and that it resists, to the fullest extent possible under applicable laws, unwarranted requests from governments for user data.
Former Twitter Human Rights Counsel Shannon Raj Singh shared the news that the company’s human rights team was fired on Friday.
“Yesterday was my last day on Twitter: the entire Human Rights team has been terminated from the company. I am very proud of the work we have done to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, to protect those at risk around the world. Conflicts and unrest including Ethiopia,” he wrote on Twitter.
Elon Musk began laying off Twitter employees on Friday. According to an unsigned internal memo seen by The Verge, Twitter employees were notified via email that the layoffs were about to begin. Musk is expected to cut about half of Twitter’s approximately 7,500 employees. The layoffs came a week after Musk became the owner of Twitter.
