Human Rights Defenders Are Worried About Hate Speech Rising On Elon Musk's Twitter

Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk, is feared to be giving Twitter too much freedom. (photo: doc. pixabay)

JAKARTA - Human rights groups on Monday, April 25, voiced their concern about hate speech on Twitter. Moreover, the social media platform will be given more power by its new owner, Elon Musk.

The world conglomerate has promised to make Twitter a platform for absolute freedom of speech. The CEO of Tesla Inc., has also stated that he has reached an agreement to make the social media platform a private company.

Musk, has described himself as an adherent of "absolute free speech" who has criticized Twitter's policy of moderating content on their platform. He once said Twitter should be a genuine forum for free speech.

In a statement after securing the deal on Monday, April 21, Musk described free speech as "the foundation of the functioning of democracy."

"Regardless of who owns Twitter, companies have a human rights responsibility to respect the rights of people around the world who depend on their platform. Changes to policies, features and algorithms, big and small, can have disproportionate and sometimes devastating, including offline violence," Deborah Brown, digital rights researcher and advocate at Human Rights Watch, told Reuters by email.

"Freedom of expression is not an absolute right, which is why Twitter needs to invest in efforts to keep its most vulnerable users safe on the platform," he added.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment on concerns raised by the group.

"While Elon Musk is a card-carrying member of the ACLU and one of our most significant supporters, there are many dangers of having so much power in the hands of one individual," Anthony Romero, executive director at the American Civil Liberties Union, told Reuters after the deal was announced.

Amnesty International said it was concerned about the possible decisions Twitter might make following Musk's takeover to erode enforcement of policies and mechanisms designed to moderate hate speech online.

"The last thing we need is Twitter to deliberately turn a blind eye to violence and abusive speech against users, especially those most disproportionately affected, including women, non-binary people and others," said Michael Kleinman, Director of Technology and Rights. Human Rights at Amnesty International USA.