Bruce Daisley, Twitter’s vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa from 2015 to 2020, said he was devastated by the anti-democratic changes at Twitter and would leave the platform without “any hesitation” if there was a good alternative . “I think Elon thought he was going to come in and solve everything and very quickly he’s going to realize it’s a lot more complicated,” he told The News Agents podcast this weekend. “It’s pretty obvious from every public action he’s taken with this whole acquisition: he doesn’t know what he’s doing.” Bruce Daisley was Twitter’s vice president for Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Photo: Bruce Daisley Daisley, who was Twitter’s most senior executive in London, also criticized Musk’s plan to charge users $8 a month for a “blue tick” verification symbol. He told the Observer Musk is trading the “legitimacy of verified sources” for “pocket money.” “The fact that we have no recourse to this is undemocratic,” he said. And he tweeted in support of a Twitter employee fired Friday amid mass layoffs, whom he described as “helping fight abusive tweets against high-profile Twitter users.” Daisley wrote: “In four weeks, when a racist tweet from the World Cup is on the front pages, remember that Musk chose to let it happen.” The fierce criticism comes after Musk implemented a series of changes to Twitter that have sparked concerns about its approach to misinformation and hate speech. On Friday, the Tesla billionaire — who bought Twitter on Oct. 27 for $44 billion — laid off about 50 percent of Twitter’s employees, saying he had “no choice” as the company bleeds more than 4 million dollars a day. The layoffs reportedly sparked groups covering human rights, ethics and due diligence. It also included moderates, though Twitter’s chief security officer, Yoel Roth, said “core moderation capabilities” remain. On Saturday, Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder and former CEO, suggested the mass layoffs were necessary because it had expanded too quickly. “I’m responsible for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company too fast. I apologize for that,” said Dorsey, who stepped down from Twitter’s board in May and backed Musk’s buyout. Hours after the mass layoffs, US President Joe Biden called out Musk and criticized the misinformation on Twitter, saying at a campaign event in Chicago that he had bought an outfit that was “broadcasting lies all over the world.” Musk previously said he would loosen Twitter’s policies in the name of free speech, indicating he would allow previously banned accounts to be reinstated, but stressed Twitter’s “strong commitment” to moderation remains “absolutely unchanged.” . Last week, it announced the formation of a content moderation board that would bring together “very diverse views” and said no decisions about moderation or account remediation would be made until that board was convened. Alex Hern’s weekly dive into how technology is shaping our lives Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Even so, Twitter appears to have spooked some advertisers, with several reportedly halting their ad spending and others understood to be reviewing their position. General Mills, known for its Cheerios and Lucky Charms cereals, became the latest to stop advertising on the platform last Thursday, with a spokesperson saying it would “continue to monitor” Twitter’s new direction. Pfizer, Mondelez, General Motors and Volkswagen were also reported to have temporarily halted spending. In a tweet on Friday, Musk said Twitter had seen a “massive drop in revenue” and blamed “activist groups” for pressuring advertisers. “Extremely confusing! They are trying to destroy free speech in America,” he told his 114 million followers. He then offered to release the names of the advertisers who are halting spending, tweeting that “a thermonuclear name and shame is exactly what will happen if this continues.” Earlier in the week, Stop Toxic Twitter, a coalition including the NAACP, had called on the platform’s 20 biggest advertisers to tell Musk they would suspend ads if he followed through on plans to “undermine the social network’s community standards and content moderation ». Stephan Loerke of the World Federation of Advertisers said a number of brands were reviewing their actions, but would judge Twitter based on “facts and action,” rather than speculation. “We hear from Twitter ownership that they remain committed to the progress that has been made so far. We will work with Twitter on that basis and take them to task,” he told the Observer. He added that brands had learned “how important it is to control the content they appear in because people will associate brands with content.” Some users have also threatened to leave the platform, with figures provided to the Observer suggesting an increase in sign-ups for alternative platforms such as Mastodon, a decentralized social network touted as an alternative to Twitter.
