Elon Musk’s Twitter Quietly Fired Its Democracy And Nationwide Safety Coverage Lead


Twitter’s public coverage crew is still decimated beneath Elon Musk, signaling a retreat from attractive with democratic, nationwide safety and human rights issues internationally.


When Elon Musk arrived as Twitter’s new proprietor in fall final yr, the corporate quietly laid off contributors of its public coverage crew, sacking quite a lot of folks the most important to protective the midterms from disinformation and interference, in addition to the ones serving to protect human rights at the web site. Among them used to be Neema Singh Guliani, its lead on democracy, nationwide safety and civil rights coverage.

Guliani, a former ACLU attorney protecting privateness and surveillance, joined Twitter in September 2020 to go coverage tasks around the Americas, however left in November. On the time, Musk’s corporate used to be beneath scrutiny for the way it used to be going to handle disinformation coming from international assets like Russia, whilst Twitter’s proprietor used to be busy firing massive swaths of the staff.

As Forbes up to now reported, beneath Musk, Twitter had laid off group of workers chargeable for tracking the midterm elections sooner than the vote took place, elevating issues about Twitter’s skill to handle mis- and disinformation threats each sooner than and after Election Day. On the time, identities of those that had left the crew devoted to protective democracy on Twitter weren’t reported.

The layoffs had a “massive have an effect on on our capability to handle disinformation and interference” right through the midterms.

Former Twitter worker

Guliani, who’d additionally labored on counterterror and extremism coverage on the DHS, introduced on LinkedIn on Thursday she had taken on a brand new function with the U.S. Division of Trade as a deputy assistant secretary, the place she’s going to paintings at the company’s efforts to create “coverage prerequisites for U.S. virtual, monetary, provide chain and different services and products industries to compete around the globe.”

Neither Guliani nor Twitter commented on her departure. Two former Twitter staff stated Guliani hadn’t selected to go away however were let move as a part of layoffs to the general public coverage crew in early November, one noting it used to be sooner than the midterms. In line with a LinkedIn publish from December via a member of that department, part of the crew were lower via Musk.

The layoffs practice a broader pattern at Musk-era Twitter of main cuts to coverage and protection in want of a “hard-core” staff eager about engineering and monetization. That has the prospective to go away gaps in Twitter’s protection in opposition to home and international meddling in elections, whilst diminishing its status at the international degree in terms of problems like human rights.

One former worker stated the November layoffs had a “massive have an effect on on our capability to handle disinformation and interference” right through the midterms. “The entire elections give a boost to we equipped is now long past,” they added.

The Musk-ordered shift clear of coverage problems has simplest ramped up in 2023, as different fresh departures published on LinkedIn point out a retreat from engagement with safety and human rights issues internationally.

U.S.-based human rights director Cynthia Wong departed in September and used to be adopted a month later via 11-year veteran and leader prison officer Vijaya Gadde. In Dublin, the vice chairman of world public coverage and philanthropy went in December, adopted via international director of prison coverage in January, then director of public coverage for Europe this month. A kind of laid off within the coverage crew layoffs stated round a dozen had been left at the crew.

The coverage crew hasn’t been completely eliminated, on the other hand. Nick Pickles, a British local and previous leader of privacy-focused nonprofit Large Brother Watch, used to be promoted to go of world executive affairs in December.

Whilst he fires the ones guiding Twitter’s reaction to international occasions, Musk stays willing to percentage his knowledge on geopolitics. Within the final 48 hours, he tweeted at his Twitter consultant David Sacks, who blamed President Biden’s insurance policies for pushing China and Russia nearer in combination, whilst pontificating at the want for congressional motion on making synthetic intelligence equitable.

Supply Through https://www.forbes.com/websites/thomasbrewster/2023/02/24/elon-musk-twitter-democracy-and-human-rights-layoffs/