With Elon Musk At Helm, Will Twitter Be A Hotbed Of Misinformation Ahead Of Midterm Elections?

Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter, has reportedly restricted some employees' access to internal tools used for content moderation and policy enforcement. 

What Happened: Ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, Musk is curbing the Twitter staff's ability to restrain misinformation by freezing their access to content-enforcement tools, according to Bloomberg.

Many of Twitter's Trust and Safety organization members reportedly cannot alter or penalize accounts that break rules about misleading information, offensive posts and hate speech. They could intervene for high-impact violations involving real-world harm as these posts were prioritized for manual enforcement, according to people familiar with the matter, stated the report.

See Also: Elon Musk Hints Twitter Could Aim At TikTok's Social Media Dominance Under His Leadership

in response to Benzinga's request for comment, Twitter shared a tweet by its head of safety and integrity, Yoel Roth.

This is exactly what we (or any company) should be doing in the midst of a corporate transition to reduce opportunities for insider risk. We’re still enforcing our rules at scale. https://t.co/CZudS4gBqo

— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) November 1, 2022

Why It's Important: The new content moderation approach has raised concerns among some Twitter employees, who believe the company will be short-handed in enforcing policies in the wake of the U.S. election on Nov. 8, the report noted. 

Following the acquisition deal, Twitter is grappling with an influx of hate speech and slurs on its platform. 

Meanwhile, Arizona Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem's Twitter account was suspended. Jenna Ellis, constitutional law attorney and former lawyer of Donald Trump, tweeted at Musk to point that out. Musk replied that he was "looking into it."

Looking into it

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2022

Finchem's account was restored soon after.

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