UltraViolet Responds to Elon Musk’s $44 Billion Twitter Takeover
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, October 28, 2022
CONTACT: Anna Zuccaro | anna@unbendablemedia.com
UltraViolet Responds to Elon Musk’s $44 Billion Twitter Takeover
Leading gender equity & anti-disinformation group warns Musk’s acquisition of Twitter will increase harassment, violent threats against women, BIPOC communities, and LGBTQ+ people
Moments ago, Elon Musk finalized a deal to purchase Twitter for $44 billion. Today was the final opportunity for Musk to make the acquisition or face trial for breach of contract with the social media platform.
In response, Bridget Todd, communications director at UltraViolet, a leading national gender equity and anti-disinformation organization, issued the following statement:
“At a time where violent threats, hate speech, and disinformation are continuing to spread rapidly across social media platforms, despite their best efforts to state the contrary with bogus ads, it’s clear that billionaires like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerburg are just getting started. Musk has commented on the record that he does not believe any Twitter posts, however factually inaccurate, violent or inflammatory, should be prohibited on Twitter, so long as they are ‘legal.’ His acquisition of Twitter just opened Pandora’s box.
“By purchasing Twitter, Elon Musk is poised to reopen the floodgates of widespread harassment and threats of violence, especially against Black women, women of color, and transgender people.
“We believe Musk will abandon Twitter’s community standards, which took years to establish, and currently provide recourse to ban users who violate those terms. This is a massively slippery slope that could set a dangerous precedent for other social media platforms to follow suit.
“We urge Musk, Twitter executives, the Board of Directors, and Twitter advertisers to continue enforcing a ban on Donald Trump as well as violent right-wing extremists and white supremacists. Additionally, we will continue to demand more vigilance about removing racist and misogynistic disinformation and those who knowingly spread it.
“Absent urgent action from Congress, social media platforms will continue to pose a danger to the American people and our democracy. With Elon Musk at the helm of Twitter just two weeks ahead of the midterm elections, it’s likely the worst is yet to come.”
Earlier this year, UltraViolet released a report card assigning letter grades to social media platforms such as Facebook/Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, and Twitter. Each platform is graded based on current hate speech policies and processes, including the removal of disinformation, threats of violence, white nationalist content, and discrimination based on gender identity, race, and sexual orientation. In 2021, Twitter began beta-testing a COVID-19 reporting function and removed bad actors from the platform, including Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene, in response to UltraViolet’s demands.
VIEW THE REPORT HERE: https://weareuv.us/feministnetreport
VIEW THE REPORT CARD HERE: https://weareuv.us/reportcard
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