Many of us recently followed Twitter’s alarming suspension of journalists’ accounts on the platform. However, there are far-reaching, structural issues at Twitter that threaten press freedom and more broadly, people’s right to be informed.
In response, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) sent a join open letter to Twitter’s Executive Team outlining recommendations to protect press freedom.
These organizations are alarmed by the rapid deterioration of basic human rights standards and responsible platform governance that are contributing to a hostile environment for journalists, which could put them in physical danger and directly threaten media freedom more broadly.
As delineated in their letter, they are calling on Twitter to play a constructive role in ensuring that journalists, and the public at large, are able to receive and impart information without fear of reprisal.
Their recommendations are as follows:
- Twitter should immediately implement transparent corporate policies anchored in the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, bringing its policies in line with international human rights standards.
- Twitter’s policies should be crafted and communicated in a transparent manner with input from affected constituencies and implemented consistently.
- To secure input on content moderation policies and product development from affected communities, Twitter should reinstate the Trust and Safety Council.
- Twitter should preserve and update its annual Transparency Report, a valuable tool for public accountability that reveals legal data requests and content removal efforts by governments as well as the company’s responses.
The points listed above constitute the absolute minimum steps necessary to reset Twitter’s relationship and credibility with journalists, the media freedom community and the vast majority of users on the platform who cherish factual information, receiving and imparting news
No one wants to be on a social media platform that endangers or censors them. As a critical communication tool in both open and repressive countries Twitter must play a constructive role in ensuring that journalists and the public at large, are able to receive and impart information without fear of reprisals. But the need for transparency online goes beyond Twitter–we must democratize the digital information ecosystem. Musk and Twitter must reverse course before it’s too late.
