Twitter has disbanded its trust and safety council, a volunteer group formed in 2016 to address hate speech, child exploitation, suicide, self-harm and other problems on the platform.
The council had been scheduled to meet with Twitter representatives on Monday night, however, it was later intimated via email that it was being disbanded before the meeting was about to take place, according to Reuters
The volunteer group provided expertise and guidance but did not have any decision-making authority and didn't review specific content disputes.
Shortly after buying Twitter for $44 billion in late October, Musk said he would form a new "content moderation council" to help make major decisions but later changed his mind.
It is disappointing therefore that after much postponement, a meeting was cancelled and an email sent informing group that the council was disbanded.
Over past week several members of council have had their personal safety and well-being impacted by the actions of Twitter staff.
— Alex Holmes ????️???? (@abcholmes) December 13, 2022
“Not the best structure”
In an email sent to the trust and safety council members Twitter stated: "As Twitter moves into a new phase, we are reevaluating how best to bring external insights into our product and policy development work.
As part of this process, we have decided that the Trust and Safety Council is not the best structure to do this.
"Our work to make Twitter a safe, informative place will be moving faster and more aggressively than ever before and we will continue to welcome your ideas going forward about how to achieve this goal."