UN Human Rights Commissioner Urges Musk to Have Twitter Focus on Human Rights

GENEVA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th November, 2022) United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has called on US billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who recently acquired Twitter, to ensure human rights are respected by the company.

"Like all companies, Twitter needs to understand the harms associated with its platform and take steps to address them. Respect for our shared human rights should set the guardrails for the platform's use and evolution," Turk said in a Saturday open letter to Musk.

The UN high commissioner listed six fundamental principles for Twitter's management team to focus on: "protect free speech across the globe," "free speech is not a free pass," "there is no place for hatred that incites discrimination, hostility or violence," "transparency is key," "protect privacy," and "languages and contextual expertise are not optional."

"In short, I urge you to ensure human rights are central to the management of Twitter under your leadership," the High Commissioner said.

Musk finally closed the $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter last week, coming shortly before voters head to the polls in the November 8 midterms to determine who controls US Congress.

According to Musk, Twitter has a lot of potential, but the company currently has no other choice than to fire employees since it is losing money. Five current and former employees filed a class-action lawsuit against the social media company on Thursday for allegedly failing to provide sufficient notice of the mass layoffs following Musk's takeover.

After completing the acquisition of the social media network, Musk fired Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde. The US billionaire also said that a special council "with widely diverse viewpoints" would be set up to moderate the platform.