"Delays in Measures Due to Cutting Essential Personnel"
[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Major foreign media reported on the 9th (local time) that Twitter and Meta, which are undergoing massive layoffs, are being criticized for their inadequate response to fake news related to the U.S. midterm elections due to a shortage of essential personnel.
Recently, Twitter, acquired by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, has been pushing through high-intensity restructuring by cutting half of its employees, including essential staff responsible for content moderation, resulting in inadequate measures, foreign media pointed out.
After completing the acquisition of Twitter on the 27th of last month, Musk dismissed all existing executives and board members, and on the 4th, just four days before the midterm elections, announced the layoff of half of the 7,500 employees.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, also downsized its election team over several months ahead of the elections. Meta’s layoffs amount to 11,000 employees, about 13% of its total workforce. This is the largest scale of layoffs since Meta’s founding and the biggest among Silicon Valley companies.
The New York Times (NYT) reported that these moves by Twitter and Meta contrast with YouTube, which has reinforced its election-related workforce by more than 10,000 personnel ahead of the U.S. midterm elections and Brazil’s presidential election to manage election-related content.
Currently, on Twitter, fake news and conspiracy theories are rampant, especially in battleground states such as Nevada and Arizona, where vote counting is not yet complete.
The congressional watchdog group Common Cause pointed out that Twitter’s recent massive layoffs of essential personnel have delayed the company’s response to the spread of such fake news. They also reported that during the process of tracking the spread of content, Twitter has left posts suspected of misinformation unaddressed and unattended.
Twitter explained that the layoff rate for the team responsible for content moderation and management was lower than average, but under the current Musk administration, the perception is spreading that content moderation is being weakened, encouraging the spread of false information.
On the 5th, Musk acknowledged that Twitter’s advertising revenue sharply declined due to concerns over content moderation but said, “Nothing has changed regarding content moderation.”
The White House also expressed concern over the spread of election-related fake news. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, upon hearing the news of mass layoffs of employees responsible for content moderation at Twitter, “President Joe Biden has emphasized the importance of social media platforms taking action to reduce hate speech and misinformation.”
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