NAACP expressed “grave concerns” to Musk
A Bloomberg report last week indicated Musk “intends to do away with permanent bans on users because he doesn’t believe in lifelong prohibitions,” meaning that Trump would be allowed back on Twitter. Trump told Fox News last week that he is staying on his own Truth Social network but declined to comment on whether he would use his Twitter account if it’s reactivated.
Allowing Trump back would invite a backlash and complicate Musk’s attempts to convince advertisers that Twitter won’t become a “free-for-all hellscape” under his leadership.
Musk wrote today that he talked to “civil society leaders… about how Twitter will continue to combat hate & harassment & enforce its election integrity policies.” Musk said the meeting included representatives of the Anti-Defamation League, Color of Change, Free Press, the Asian American Foundation, the NAACP, the George W. Bush Presidential Center, and the League of United Latin American Citizens.
“The NAACP met with Elon Musk to express our grave concerns with the dangerous, life-threatening hate and conspiracies that have proliferated under his watch. The bird cannot be free as long as election denialism, hatred, misinformation and disinformation exist on Twitter,” NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson wrote today.
Update: A spokesperson for the League of United Latin American Citizens criticized Musk for inviting its recently fired CEO instead of the group’s current leadership, saying former CEO Sindy Benavides “does not represent LULAC in any capacity before any audience.” Benavides is reportedly involved in a splinter group in a dispute involving two factions that each claim control of the organization. The battle could be decided in court.
Musk’s promise a “good first step”
Free Press Co-CEO Jessica González said she attended the meeting with Musk. “I shared my concerns that hate, harassment, and conspiracy theories proliferate on the platform and underscored the disproportionate harm that unmoderated social-media spaces inflict on women and people of color. I asked him to retain and fully enforce election-integrity measures,” González wrote.
González called the discussion “productive” and said Musk’s post-meeting commitments are a “good first step.” She wrote:
First, he agreed that he would not put anyone kicked off Twitter for violating its trust and safety rules back on the platform before the US midterm elections next week; and he promised that any replatforming following the election will involve a transparent process. Second, he agreed to retain and enforce election-integrity measures and assured us that all staff responsible for this work would have access to Twitter’s tools by the end of this week. Finally, he promised that he would consult with civil- and human-rights experts and those who have been targeted online as he develops new content-moderation policies.
Free Press criticized Twitter’s content moderation in a report last week and joined with about 40 other groups to call on Twitter’s top 20 advertisers to “suspend all advertising on the platform if [Musk] follows through on plans to undermine the social network’s community standards and content moderation.”
González said after the meeting that Free Press will continue to pressure advertisers and that Musk’s commitments are “just the beginning of a long process.”
“We’ll be evaluating Musk closely and assessing whether he backs up his promises,” she said, noting that “hate, abuse and conspiracy theories are rampant on Twitter.”