Message from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to Musk: “I call on you to ensure that human rights are central to the management of Twitter under your leadership.”
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, urged new Twitter owner Elon Musk to ensure the social network respects human rights, in an open letter issued Saturday.
“Like all companies, Twitter must understand the harms associated with its platform and take steps to remedy it. Respect for human rights should be a safety barrier to the use and development of the platform. In short, I invite you to ensure that human rights are central to the management of Twitter under your leadership,” Türk wrote. .
In his letter, Turk said that reports that Musk had fired the entire human rights team of the platform "was not, in my view, an encouraging start."
The UN Commissioner expressed "concern and fear about our digital public sphere and the role of Twitter in it."
Turk posted the open message on Twitter, where he is followed by more than 25,000 people.
The commissioner mentioned 6 basic human rights principles, and urged Musk to adopt them in managing Twitter. Among those principles are the protection of freedom of expression and privacy and the guarantee of transparency.
On Saturday, Twitter launched a subscription for $8 a month to get the blue tick for verified accounts, as part of an overhaul of the platform's verification system led by new owner Elon Musk.
In an update to iOS on Apple devices, Twitter announced that users who "sign up now" can have a blue check mark next to their name, "just like celebrities, companies and politicians."
On Thursday, Musk mocked, in a tweet, the willingness of Twitter users to pay $ 8 for a coffee drink, and their resentment at paying the same amount to keep the blue tick.
Musk began firing hundreds of Twitter employees on Friday, four days before the midterm elections, including members of teams working on the US election and editing content on the social media platform.
Tweets flooded the platform on Friday, and several employees used hashtags to share the news, with other employees reporting abandonment.
Many of those previously laid off worked in senior departments including public policy, trust, safety, communications, engineering, marketing and human resources.
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