The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, has written to the new owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, urging him to “ensure that human rights are central to the management of Twitter”.
Recall that Twitter had laid off half its workforce on Friday and tweets by staff of the social media company said the team responsible for human rights was among those affected, a development which Turk described as not “an encouraging start”.
Turk said in the letter “Twitter is part of a global revolution that has transformed how we communicate”. “But I write with concern and apprehension about our digital public square and Twitter’s role in it.”
He added, “Like all companies, Twitter needs to understand the harms associated with its platform and take steps to address them”. “Respect for our shared human rights should set the guardrails for the platform’s use and evolution.”
“In short, I urge you to ensure human rights are central to the management of Twitter under your leadership”.
Friday’s layoffs crowned a week of chaos and uncertainty about Twitter’s future under Musk, the world’s richest person, who tweeted that the service is experiencing a “massive drop in revenue”.
