Russian state-media eyes Twitter resurgence under Musk

Russian state media figures in recent weeks have clamored for Elon Musk to remove labels affixed to their profiles and to lift constraints imposed on them in the wake of the war in Ukraine, directing their pleas at the tech mogul’s self-described free speech sensibilities. 

The push could mark an early global test for Musk, who has signaled a desire to ease account restrictions on Twitter and drawn criticism for his stance on Russia. 

A slew of prominent Russian state media hosts and contributors have challenged Musk to live up to his stated commitment to free speech by removing labels on their accounts and to roll back policies limiting their visibility and reach on the platform. Twitter has long labeled accounts for government-linked media outlets, but in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine expanded it to include posts sharing links from Russian state media. It also stopped recommending such posts and limited their visibility in search.

RT host and contributor Rachel Blevins:

RT editor in chief Margarita Simonyan: 

RT anchor and correspondent Fiorella Isabel: 

They may have reason to hope Musk will follow through. 

Before offering to buy Twitter, Musk said he refused government calls for his satellite internet provider Starlink to block Russian news outlets, tweeting, “Sorry to be a free speech absolutist.”

Musk also offered some praise for outlets like RT, formerly Russia Today, in private text exchanges revealed during the legal battle over his bid to buy Twitter. 

Musk said he found the news on Russian state media channels “quite entertaining,” according to a report by The Hill, adding that they have a “lot of bulls—, but some good points, too.” 

Chinese state media contributors have also called on Musk to remove labels and restrictions on their accounts, as the Washington Examiner previously reported. 

Twitter’s communications team, which was gutted Friday as a part of the mass layoffs at the company, did not return a request for comment Sunday. 

Musk has said that he plans to abide by local laws when it comes to content restrictions, but it’s unclear how that stance will mesh with European Union sanctions on Russian state media. 

Musk faced a firestorm of criticism last month for suggesting that “peace” could be achieved if invaded Ukraine ceded territory to Russia, among other concessions. 

The remarks drew direct rebukes from Ukrainian officials and former U.S. national security officials, some of whom suggested Musk was kowtowing to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Musk’s remarks on global affairs have raised fears about potential appeasement by Twitter to authoritarian leaders around the world, who use the platform to disseminate their message, as my colleagues Joseph Menn and Cat Zakrzewski reported last month. 

Musk further stoked concern about the platform backsliding on human rights after slashing the team tasked with overseeing the issue on Friday.

Shannon Raj Singh, Twitter’s human rights counsel, tweeted Friday that her entire team had been eliminated. She said the team worked to implement human rights principles “to protect those at-risk in global conflicts & crises including Ethiopia, Afghanistan, and Ukraine.”

Human rights lawyer and Atlantic Council nonresident senior fellow Rayhan Asat:

Human Rights Watch chief communications officer Mei Fong: 

Trump is stuck with Truth Social, whether he likes it or not

Former president Donald Trump’s social network has been outranked by major social media firms, but the former president has told allies that he has to stick with it because he’s propping it up and doesn’t want a venture so closely associated with his brand to fail, Drew Harwell and Josh Dawsey report. Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter is putting Trump’s commitment to Truth Social to the test, and some in Trump’s orbit are wondering whether he’ll be able to stick with a small site with looming financial challenges and a struggle to gain an audience.

The Post sent Trump Media a list of claims, none of which were disputed. In a statement, Trump Media spokeswoman Shannon Devine said that “The Washington Post’s obsessive series of conspiracy theories about Truth Social read like the jealous projections of a failing newspaper because The Post is, in fact, a failing newspaper envious of our undeniable popularity.”

Facebook and Twitter haven’t labeled election misinformation

At least 26 candidates this electoral cycle have posted inaccurate election claims since April, with Facebook and Twitter doing little to refute them, Naomi Nix, Jeremy B. Merrill and Hayden Godfrey report. For years, the companies have promised to fight falsehoods by adding accurate voting information and removing rule-violating misinformation.

Twitter has said it ramped down its enforcement between March 2021 and August 2022, and the company has said it activates its civic integrity policy three months before Election Day. Facebook parent Meta spokesman Andy Stone didn’t directly address the company’s labeling of posts with misleading election information, and said that many of the posts that The Post asked about were “examples of standard political content like candidates promoting their campaign websites, posing questions in congressional hearings or reacting to court decisions.” He also criticized The Post for only reviewing misinformation in text form and not YouTube or TikTok as well.

Twitter postpones new blue check system until after Election Day

The company won’t release a feature in its subscription service to let paying customers get blue check marks by Election Day, the New York Times’s Ryan Mac, Kate Conger and Mike Isaac report. But the planned release date – Nov. 9 – could also cause complications because expected misinformation could be rampant at that point and some races could still be undecided.

In a company Slack channel this weekend, a Twitter employee asked why the company was “making such a risky change before elections, which has the potential of causing election interference.” A manager working on the project responded on Sunday that “we’ve made the decision to move the launch of this release to Nov. 9, after the election.” Twitter didn’t respond to the New York Times’s request for comment. 

Twitter users discussed how Twitter is reportedly asking some workers who were laid off to come back. Writer Will Knight:

Writer and activist Roslyn Talusan:

Our colleague Mark Berman:

Facebook parent Meta is preparing to notify employees of large-scale layoffs this week (Wall Street Journal)

Twitter now asks some fired workers to please come back (Bloomberg News)

U.N. urges Musk to safeguard human rights at Twitter (Reuters)

GitHub users file a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft for training an AI tool with their code (Motherboard)

• The Center for Strategic and International Studies hosts an event on government access to data through data brokers today at 3 p.m. 

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