The BBC's Marianna Spring reports that insiders at Twitter say that the company is no longer protecting users from state-co-ordinated disinformation and child sexual exploitation. Such material is "on the rise" at the site; targeted harassment campaigns are no longer monitored, let alone removed; and bots following misogynistic and abusive accounts are up 69%. The tools are broken and the boss doesn't care.
Current and former employees of the company tell BBC Panorama that features intended to protect Twitter users from trolling and harassment are proving difficult to maintain, amid what they describe as a chaotic working environment in which Mr Musk is shadowed by bodyguards at all times. I've spoken to dozens, with several going on the record for the first time.
The former head of content design says everyone on her team – which created safety measures such as nudge buttons – has been sacked. She later resigned. Internal research by Twitter suggests those safety measures reduced trolling by 60%. An engineer working for Twitter told me "nobody's taking care" of this type of work now, likening the platform to a building that seems fine from the outside, but inside is "on fire".
The BBC's headline, "Twitter insiders: We can't protect users from trolling under Musk" verges on absurdity. They reported out a story about child porn and state disinfo and the editor looked at it and thought "ah yes, trolling." The reporter must be livid.
