“Elon Musk’s Bid to Takeover & Privatize Twitter Would Likely Increase Harassment, Violent Threats Towards Women Online” Warns UltraViolet
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, April 25, 2022
CONTACT: Anna Zuccaro | anna@unbendablemedia.com
“Elon Musk’s Bid to Takeover & Privatize Twitter Would Likely Increase Harassment, Violent Threats Towards Women Online” Warns UltraViolet
Statement from Bridget Todd, communications director at UltraViolet, on reports Twitter is nearing a purchase deal with Elon Musk who plans to privatize the now public social media platform.
“Elon Musk is one of the wealthiest, most powerful people on the planet. He also does not believe any Twitter posts, however factually inaccurate, violent or inflammatory, should be prohibited on Twitter.
“If this deal pulls through, and Twitter converts back into private enterprise without express conditions to maintain community standards, Musk would rip open Pandora’s box and reopen the floodgates for hate and baseless conspiracy theories. Twitter would revert into a more dangerous place for women. Harassment and threats of violence online, especially against Black women and women of color, would skyrocket. Donald Trump would likely be replatformed, where he could continue spreading disinformation, proliferating baseless conspiracy theories, and inciting more violence to millions of people.
“Social media companies have a long way to go before the spread of disinformation, violence, harassment, and hate speech are no longer a norm on their platforms, but some companies have made progress in the last couple of years, including Twitter. Without any conditions for Musk to purchase Twitter, the platform’s community standards and recourse to ban users who violate those standards, Twitter could set a dangerous precedent for other social media companies to follow. This is a massively slippery slope.”
“It is imperative that Twitter’s Board of Directors acknowledge that with Musk in charge, Donald Trump, who had been banned from the platform for repeated violations of terms of service and incitement to violence, including right-wing extremists and white supremacists, will likely have their accounts restored. Republicans in Congress are already cheering Musk’s bid for Twitter – and looking forward to this exact moment.
“This is proof that Big Tech cannot regulate itself – and that absent urgent action from Congress, social media platforms will continue to pose a danger to the American people and our democracy.”
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. Twitter recently 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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