Elon Musk now owns Twitter, and a local technology teacher and blogger is warning that some of the changes the new owner is making could have a negative impact on users.
Musk’s Twitter takeover has come with massive layoffs, concerns around freedom of speech, and changes to the platform such as payment to receive verified status.
Kevin Andrews says Musk wants to create a more free-wielding platform for various types of commentary, while at the same time turning a profit.
To do that, Andrews says Musk has laid off about 50 percent of Twitter’s workforce, including many of the “content curation teams” that oversee things such as hate speech and disinformation.
Andrews says without human teams there’s a good chance more undesirable content will start to pop up.
He says current trends suggest an increase in racial slurs on the platform, and unless there are changes happening that he’s unaware of users will be negatively impacted. Regardless of what software is used to try to moderate hate speech, Andrews believes there needs to be human teams as well.