UN human rights chief calls on Musk to respect free speech

United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk urged Twitter CEO Elon Musk to respect customers’ free speech rights in response to the suspension of a lot of distinguished tech journalists from the platform.

Volker Türk, the UN’s Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights, weighed in after Musk polled customers and lifted the suspensions of journalists the Twitter proprietor accused of “doxxing” him by reporting on an account that used publicly accessible information to trace the billionaire’s non-public jet.

“Excellent news that journalists are being reinstated @Twitter, however critical considerations stay,” Türk wrote in a tweet on Saturday. 

“Twitter has a accountability to respect human rights: @elonmusk ought to commit to creating resolution based mostly on publicly-available insurance policies that respect rights, together with free speech. Nothing much less,” Türk concluded. 

Musk has lengthy championed free speech and claimed that he needed to defend these values when he bought Twitter, main many to accuse him of hypocrisy over the current suspensions. On Sunday, he introduced a brand new coverage barring customers from sharing hyperlinks to different social media platforms.

Türk despatched an open letter to Musk final month urging him to position human rights on the heart of his administration of Twitter.

“Twitter is a part of a worldwide revolution that has reworked how we talk. However I write with concern and apprehension about our digital public sq. and Twitter’s position in it,” Türk stated in his letter. 

“Like all firms, Twitter wants to grasp the harms related to its platform and take steps to deal with them. Respect for our shared human rights ought to set the guardrails for the platform’s use and evolution.”

Controversies have plagued Twitter since Musk bought the social media platform for $44 billion in October. Musk has fired a whole bunch of workers, together with high executives, dissolved its board of administrators, scaled again content material moderation and restored the accounts of many right-wing figures banned for violating insurance policies in opposition to abuse and hate speech.