Elon Musk mocks BBC investigation exposing an increase in Twitter trolls
Twitter owner Elon Musk has responded with mockery to a BBC investigation which said the social media platform is struggling to protect users from online abuse and child sexual exploitation, among other things.
In a tweet on Monday, the billionaire apologised ‘for turning Twitter from nurturing paradise into place that has … trolls.’
‘Literally roflmao’ replied Musk to a Twitter user who mockingly said that before his takeover of the platform no one had ever said anything mean to them.
‘It was a beautiful utopia. Now I fear for my life daily,’ tweeted the user.
The BBC Panorama report cited figures from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue think tank which showed that tens of thousands of new accounts have popped up and immediately followed known abusive and misogynistic profiles since Musk took over.
The figures were 69% higher than before he was in charge, suggesting a ‘permissive environment’, the report claimed.
The BBC cited Lisa Jennings Young, a former head of content design at Twitter, who said that before the takeover the platform was trying to crack down on trolling, which was widespread on Twitter.
‘It was not at all perfect. But we were trying, and we were making things better all the time,’ she said.
Ray Serrato, a former Twitter worker who tackled state-sponsored disinformation, said that the team he used to work for had been ‘decimated’ and only has minimised capacity today.
‘Twitter might have been the refuge where journalists would go out and have their voice be heard and be critical of the government. But I’m not sure that’s going to be the case anymore,’ he said.
‘There are a number of key experts that are no longer in that team that would have covered special regions, or threat actors, from Russia to China.’
Another anonymous source told the BBC that the drain of expertise from Twitter said that the team of 20 people who used to work on tackling child sexual exploitation had been cut to just six or seven.
According to the investigation, child sexual exploitation is on the rise on Twitter, with fewer resources to report suspected offenders to the police.
Targeted harassment campaigns aimed at curbing freedom of expression, and foreign influence operations – once removed daily from Twitter – are going ‘undetected’, according to one recent employee.
Rape survivors have been targeted by accounts that have become more active since the takeover, with evidence they’ve been reinstated or newly created, said the report.
At least half of Twitter’s 7,500 workforce have been sacked or chosen to leave since Musk bought the platform for $44 billion in October last year.
‘From someone on the inside, it’s like a building where all the pieces are on fire. When you look at it from the outside the façade looks fine, but I can see that nothing is working,’ said one employee.
The employee also believes that Musk doesn’t trust his staff, which he says is indicated by the level of security Musk surrounds himself with.
‘Wherever he goes in the office, there are at least two bodyguards – very bulky, tall, Hollywood movie-[style] bodyguards. Even when [he goes] to the restroom,’ he said.
The BBC said that it had attempted to contact Musk via email, tweets and even tried a Twitter ‘poll’, in the hope it might attract Musk’s attention.
More than 40,000 users voted and 89% said Musk should do an interview with BBC Panorama.
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