As Twitchy showed you in an earlier post, there’s a montage of headlines crowing about Twitter’s content moderation team being let go by Elon Musk. We’ve read reports about the “uptick” in hate speech in the past week as well as the complete surrender of the site to right-wing extremism. Blue checks are torn: Do they stick it to Musk by taking their content elsewhere or do they stay and fight for the truth?
Bloomberg is among those panicked and says the cuts at Twitter “spur concerns” about both the midterm elections and human rights.
Will Twitter be able to monitor the US midterms with half the staff? https://t.co/S3gx7i6kVK
— Bloomberg (@business) November 5, 2022
Kurt Wagner and Davey Alba, whom we’ve been hearing a lot from this week, report:
Elon Musk’s broad-based cuts at Twitter Inc. are leading current and former employees to question whether the social network will have the resources to keep crucial systems like content moderation running effectively, including during the US midterm elections on Tuesday.
…
Twitter has historically been a major tool for following news during elections, as the first place information gets reported before it ends up on television or other social networks. Now, the site “has been massively disrupted,” becoming vulnerable to problems during high-traffic moments, or coordinated disinformation campaigns, said Dr. Kate Starbird, an associate professor at the University of Washington and co-founder of the Center for an Informed Public. “Some of the ways that that platform worked yesterday are not going to be the ways that they work today, tomorrow and going into the election on Tuesday.”
Now Twitter has “historically” been a major tool for following election news. We’ll still see the panels on MSNBC crying Tuesday night, though; cable news is where people get their election updates.
Excuse me? Since when is a corporation supposed to “monitor” our elections?
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) November 5, 2022
I didn't know it was their job to do that.
— Just One Strawman (@JustOneStrawman) November 5, 2022
That's not their job.
— ArchLobster 🇪🇨 🇺🇸 (@ArchLobster) November 5, 2022
It's not the responsibility of twitter to monitor the midterms
— Frank (@richardrahl1086) November 5, 2022
Go to bed, Bloomberg, you’re drunk.
— Leslie ن 🇺🇸☦️ (@LADowd) November 5, 2022
They censored a true story before the last presidential election with a full staff. 🥴
— Janice (@jannyfayray) November 5, 2022
Somehow elections happened before Twitter.
— Max Abrahms (@MaxAbrahms) November 5, 2022
Monitor?
Careful. You’re saying the quiet part out loud again.
— Ultra Grateful Calvin 🇺🇸🐶🏒 🎶 (@shoveitjack) November 5, 2022
Um. Is that what Twitter does?
— Cable Beard (@llcthecableguy) November 5, 2022
Why would they need to monitor?
— The New Adventures of Henry (@Car94Hen) November 5, 2022
Didn't know that Twitter had some official role in the elections.
— Alvin Quinn (aka The Thinker) 👨🎓🕵️♂️ (@bquicker) November 5, 2022
"Monitor"🧐🤔
— OpposingForce🇺🇸 (@OPFORPio) November 5, 2022
Who asked them to and what business is it of theirs?
— Duffyevsky ☦ 🇷🇺 (@TheIllegit) November 5, 2022
Is Twitter the U.N. now?
— Jim Stinson (@jimstinson) November 5, 2022
Will Twitter be able to sway an election with half the staff?
— James 🔕 (@the_jame) November 5, 2022
Twitter isn't an election monitor. It's a social media platform.
— The Amazing Critter Man 🇺🇸🐍 (@_CritterMan) November 5, 2022
But … and this is just a hypothetical … what if people start spamming Twitter with news that Dr. Oz has won the Pennsylvania Senate election before polls close? All those John Fetterman voters might back up and go home. That’s why it’s so important. We can’t have election “disinformation” spreading until the Democrats have declared victory.
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Related:
MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace asks if it’s time to invite foreign interference into US elections (for ‘monitoring’ purposes only of course) https://t.co/xixoRCQcAH
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) October 24, 2022
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