Why the EU Has Asked Elon Musk to Hire More Staff to Moderate Twitter

The European Union instructed Elon Musk to rent extra human moderators and fact-checkers to overview posts on Twitter, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing 4 individuals aware of talks between Musk, Twitter executives and regulators in Brussels.

The demand complicates Musk’s efforts to reorganise the loss-making enterprise he acquired for $44 billion (roughly Rs. 3,37,465 crore) in October. He has slashed greater than half of Twitter’s 7,500 workers, together with the complete belief and security groups in some places of work, whereas searching for cheaper strategies to monitor tweets, the report stated.

The huge layoffs have raised issues if Twitter can adjust to the EU’s Digital Services Act that requires Internet platforms to put particular measures in place towards unlawful content material, earlier than the legislation comes into full impact in early 2024.

Twitter has been leaning closely on automation to reasonable content material, getting rid of sure guide critiques. It doesn’t make use of reality checkers, in contrast to bigger rival Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram, the report stated.

European Union business chief Thierry Breton on a video name in January warned Musk of “huge work ahead” for Twitter to apply clear use insurance policies, considerably reinforce content material moderation and defend freedom of speech.

On Tuesday, Musk stated that the firm had “a shot” at being money flow-positive subsequent quarter, as the social media platform has been aggressively reducing prices.

Musk, talking at a Morgan Stanley investor convention that was webcast, stated it was “startling” how poorly Twitter managed to become profitable off its messaging service.

The firm has decreased its non-debt expenditures to $1.5 billion (roughly Rs. 12,317 crore) from a projected $4.5 billion (roughly Rs. 36,951 crore) in 2023, helped by reducing its cloud companies invoice by 40 p.c and shutting one knowledge centre, Musk stated. Twitter has additionally laid off hundreds of staff.

© Thomson Reuters 2023