According to Twitter, Twitter has closed all of its offices in Brussels financial timessevering ties with one of the most important regulatory centers in the world, as concerns grow about Twitter’s struggle to moderate content on its platform after laying off Elon Musk’s brutal staff.
Twitter’s Brussels offices have closed after its last two employees left last week, a newspaper reported financial times.
Julia Moser And the Dario NASAwho ran Twitter’s digital policy in Europe, has reportedly survived the first round of layoffs from TwitterElon Musk. However, they left the company after the billionaire gave the employees an ultimatum to work long, high-intensity hours.
The financial times He explains that it is not known whether the duo quit or were separated.
Despite its small size (eight employees before Elon Musk took over the reins of the company), Twitter’s Brussels offices have played an important role in the social network’s interaction with European decision-makers and in its compliance with Europe’s strict digital regulations and regulations.
Vice President of the European Commission, Vera JourovaL., who led the project on the European Code of Good Practice against Disinformation, told financial times She was “concerned” that Twitter was “laying off too many employees” in Europe.
However, Věra Jourová said that Twitter will have to honor its obligations and respect European standards, especially in light of Russia’s “war of disinformation.”
“If you want to expose disinformation and propaganda and take effective action against it, it takes resources,” said Věra Jourová. Twitter has been a very useful partner in the fight against misinformation and illicit hate speech and that should not change. »
The closure of Twitter’s Brussels offices threatens to strain the company’s relationship with the European Union (EU), whose standards governing the digital world are among the strictest and are often ahead of global regulations in the field. Additionally, this shutdown helps exacerbate concerns about the platform’s inability to effectively moderate content or tackle disinformation, despite the commitment shown by Elon Musk.
The departure of the last two Brussels employees from Twitter comes a week after the entry into force of landmark EU rules for online platforms that could have dire consequences for Twitter and other social networks. Compliance is an important issue for companies and European regulators can impose heavy fines on those who do not comply with applicable standards. These fines can reach 6% of the global turnover of the offending companies.
Elon Musk moved quickly to downsize Twitter immediately after he took over the company. The billionaire has fired CEOs and the entire board of directors of the social network. In addition, he laid off about half of the staff upon his arrival. He then fired employees who disagreed with him, sometimes publicly, and many others reportedly left after the billionaire issued an ultimatum. Estimates of the number of staff remaining vary, although several reports indicate that major teams tasked with monitoring critical systems have few or no staff left.
Moderating hate speech and misinformation was one of the main concerns of Elon Musk in his bid to take over Twitter. The billionaire, self-proclaimed “absolute” freedom of speech, brought back the former US president Donald Trump He previously criticized the platform’s moderation policies and promised changes. Since Elon Musk, former Twitter security chief, took office, Yoel Rothsaid there had been an “escalation of hateful behavior.” Yoel Roth’s comments align with Bloomberg reports that Twitter saw a sharp rise in hate speech after it was taken over by Elon Musk.
The closure of Twitter’s Brussels offices comes amid reports of broader staffing issues at the company’s main European offices and elsewhere around the world. The departure from the Twitter office in Dublin is particularly important. This is the head office for business compliance with the very strict EU General Data Protection Regulations. Ireland’s data regulator has previously raised concerns about Twitter’s workforce and the social network’s ability to comply with EU data protection rules, breaches of which can result in fines of up to 4% of the offending company’s worldwide turnover.
According to Forbes estimates, Elon Musk’s net worth is up to $191.4 billion. This figure makes the billionaire the richest person on the planet.
Translated article from the American magazine Forbes – Author: Robert Hart
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