On November 12, data analyst Melissa Ingle discovered that she no longer had access to Twitter's internal communication channels.
Shortly afterwards, an email came that she had been dismissed.
- In connection with Elon Musk's purchase, we had heard rumors of layoffs, but it felt unreal when it actually happened, says Ingle.
Worked on moderation
Ingle worked for about a year at Twitter.
She was employed through a staffing agency in a department that developed algorithms to moderate posts and comments with inappropriate content such as threats, hate, harassment and political disinformation.
- In my department, two-thirds had to go and the people who reviewed the posts have almost been completely removed, she says.
Ingle takes a serious view of the sharp reduction in staff who moderate posts.
Although automated algorithms exist to filter and clean up inappropriate content, she believes that the human factor is required.
- There are around 36 million Twitter posts per hour.
No human workforce in the world is capable of monitoring all of these but sometimes you need people to read tone, sarcasm, parody and some things that the algorithms miss.
What do you think might happen then?
- I am afraid that disinformation will increase on the platform now.
People don't want to be associated with the kind of hate and ranting that tends to occur on unmoderated platforms.
Musk appoints board
Elon Musk has previously been critical of Twitter's moderation policy, saying it limits freedom of expression.
For example, he has also released Donald Trump back on the platform, which was suspended after the riots in Washington DC in 2021 because his posts were judged to incite violence.
Since Elon Musk bought Twitter, he has said that he will appoint a special board to review the moderation, but points out that nothing has changed in Twitter's policy so far.
Kulturnyheterna has sought Twitter for a comment.
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