It was learned that the council scheduled to meet with Twitter representatives Monday night. But Twitter informed the group via email that it was disbanding it shortly before the meeting was to take place.
The new Chief Executive Officer of Twitter, Elon Musk, has dissolved the company’s Trust and Safety Council, the advisory group of around 100 independent civil, human rights and other organisations that the company formed in 2016 to address hate speech, child exploitation, suicide, self-harm and other problems on the platform, AP News has reported.
It was learned that the council scheduled to meet with Twitter representatives Monday night. But Twitter informed the group via email that it was disbanding it shortly before the meeting was to take place.
The council members, who provided The Associated Press with images of the email from Twitter, spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation.
The email said Twitter was “reevaluating how best to bring external insights” and the council is “not the best structure to do this.”
“Our work to make Twitter a safe, informative place will be moving faster and more aggressively than ever before and we will continue to welcome your ideas going forward about how to achieve this goal,” said the email, which was signed “Twitter.”
The volunteer group provided expertise and direction on how Twitter could better combat hate, harassment, and other harms, but it lacked decision-making authority and did not review specific content disputes.
Musk said he would form a new "content moderation council" to help make major decisions shortly after purchasing Twitter for $44 billion in late October, but later changed his mind.