Twitter’s Content Moderation Team Reportedly Unable to Work Amid Musk Takeover

Twitter did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s questions regarding how enforcement “at scale” is possible with a fraction of the usual staff, or how long such a limitation on site moderators would continue.

Yet, even if the move to cut off staff access to content enforcement tools makes sense from an internal perspective, it certainly comes at a bad time for U.S. politics. Midterm voting is already underway in many states, and election denial conspiracy theories are rampant nationwide. It’s been proven over the past few years, time and time again, just how much dis-and misinformation can influence things like votes, peoples’ perception of election validity, and legislation. We’re at a moment of already high tensions and worry over voter suppression and intimidation.

Allowing false information to proliferate on Twitter right now certainly won’t help. The platform has previously contributed to the spread of election-time lies—like unfounded claims that the 2020 Iowa Caucuses were rigged. But just a couple of months ago, the company claimed it would be taking the problem seriously ahead of the midterms. So far though, things aren’t looking great.

Musk himself promoted an untrue narrative surrounding the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, before eventually deleting the tweet. And, according to Bloomberg, the CEO also reportedly asked Twitter’s conduct team to review it’s misinformation and hateful conduct policies surrounding election outcomes, covid-19, and targeting transgender users.