Elon Musk under pressure to return woke censorship team to Twitter

The pressure on Twitter owner Elon Musk is increasing further. The US regulator FTC is “intensifying”an already ongoing investigation into Twitter. Furthermore, the European Commission has informed the billionaire that he should hire more employees to moderate Twitter, The New York Times and the Financial Times report based on sources.

The US investigation revolves around the question of whether Twitter has “adequate resources” to ensure the privacy of its users after the thousands of layoffs and other cuts.

Among other things, the FTC wants to hear Musk himself in the investigation, along with former employees who have dealt with privacy and security. The regulator wants to know, among other things, how the management structure at the company is structured and what exactly Musk’s role is. With the acquisition of Twitter, Musk has become the owner and CEO of the company.

The latter, by the way, he himself sees as a temporary role. In December, it seemed that he would soon step down as CEO, although he would always have the last word on decisions. A successor is not yet in the picture, and Musk recently said that it will probably take until the end of the year before it is found.

Twitter is under increased scrutiny due to agreements the company made with the FTC in 2011. This appointment was extended last year. The tech company must have regular security tests and keep the FTC informed of how it handles sensitive data. Last year, the regulator imposed another $ 150 million fine on the platform. Musk did not own Twitter at the time.

In Brussels, there are concerns about whether Twitter can meet its moderation obligations. It is then both about whether or not to delete messages and about Fact Checks, something that Twitter does not do at the moment. Musk should hire more people for this, according to the European Commission.

Musk has recently fired numerous so-called moderators; he wants to cut costs as much as possible in order to quickly get the company into the black numbers. How many additional employees Musk should hire according to the EU is unclear. The number of staff members still performing moderation tasks is also unclear.

European Commissioner Breton for the internal market said he expects Twitter to hire additional people to comply with new EU legislation. In a response to the Financial Times, Twitter also announced its intention to fully comply with that legislation. The company speaks of “productive talks” with the EU.

In January, Musk told Breton that he wants to lean more on automatic systems for moderation in the future.