Musk gets human rights letter from UN after Twitter firings

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk,  sent a letter on Saturday to the new owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, in which he pointed out, among other points, that in the social network “there should be no place for hate that incites discrimination, hostility or violence”.

The high commissioner also assured that “freedom of expression should not mean a totally free path”, and pointed out in this sense that the dissemination of disinformation can be harmful, “as could be seen during the covid-19 pandemic in relation to the vaccines”.

“Twitter has a responsibility when it comes to preventing the dissemination of content that harms people’s rights,” said the high commissioner’s open letter, in which he also indicated that “freedom of expression ends when there is hate speech that incites discrimination, hostility or violence”.

Türk also said that the recent firing of Twitter’s human rights team and most of those in charge of the ethics and artificial intelligence department “are not a hopeful start” to Musk’s tenure as CEO.

“Twitter must understand the damages related to the platform and take measures to face them. Respecting our human rights must serve as a limit for the use and evolution of the social network.”