NCL: Musk must protect privacy of Twitter’s users, not allow platform to become a “cesspool”
May 3, 2022
Media contact: National Consumers League – Katie Brown, katie@nclnet.org, (202) 207-2832
Washington, D.C. – The National Consumers League (“NCL”), America’s oldest consumer advocacy organization, today urged Elon Musk to protect user privacy while continuing to regulate dangerous and misleading content when he acquires Twitter.
The following statement is attributable to NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg:
“Regardless of who owns the company, Twitter has a responsibility to police its platform for dangerous misinformation and disinformation, particularly as it relates to public health issues like the COVID-19 pandemic. Twitter, like other social media companies, has content moderation policies in place but routinely struggles to stop aggressive and pervasive misinformation and disinformation campaigns on the platform. This has wide-ranging and negative consequences for public health and the health of our democracy.
Further weakening or failing to enforce Twitter’s content moderation policies will not promote free speech. Doing so would simply make it easier for the most noxious voices on the Internet – racists, anti-Semites, anti-vaxxers, and many others – to drown out legitimate and important dialogue. Instead of allowing an unfettered free-for-all, Mr. Musk should use the opportunity of acquiring Twitter to increase privacy protections, such as by implementing end-to-end encryption for all direct messages. He should also maintain Twitter’s ban on the most egregious violators of the platform’s content moderation policies; particularly those who have used the platform to promote hate, public health misinformation, and attacks on democracy. The Internet’s town square must not become a cesspool, regardless of how much money the world’s richest man has at his disposal.”
###
About the National Consumers League (NCL)
The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.
