UN urges Musk to safeguard human rights at Twitter

Elon Musk photo and Twitter logo are seen through magnifier in this illustration taken November 4, 2022. (REUTERS)

GENEVA  – The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, on Saturday issued an open letter to Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter Inc, urging him to “ensure human rights are central to the management of Twitter”.

Twitter Inc 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 Türk described as not “an encouraging start”.

“Twitter is part of a global revolution that has transformed how we communicate,” Türk said in the letter. “But I write with concern and apprehension about our digital public square and Twitter’s role in it.”

“Like all companies, Twitter needs to understand the harms associated with its platform and take steps to address them,” he added. “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,” the High Commissioner said.

Friday’s layoffs capped a week of chaos and uncertainty about Twitter’s future under Musk, the world’s richest person, who tweeted on Friday that the service was experiencing a “massive drop in revenue”.

gsg