“We’ve gotten an email early in November that basically acknowledged the staffing changes and let us know that they were going to reach back out in December,” Soundararajan said.
Meanwhile, the Twitter staffers Soundararajan typically communicates with have disappeared. “Our emails bounce back,” she said.
Potential for blue checkmark abuse
Against that backdrop, Musk’s plans to relaunch a subscription offering that would give accounts checkmark badges – previously used to indicate Twitter had verified the identity of high-profile accounts – are a source of additional concern.
The initial rollout of the feature allowed anyone to buy an $8 monthly subscription and receive a blue checkmark with no identity verification. Immediately, accounts popped up impersonating celebrities, companies and politicians, forcing Twitter to halt signups.
Musk has said the feature will return, with different colored checkmarks for different kinds of accounts, and that going forward, all verified accounts will be “manually authenticated.” It’s not clear how Twitter will authenticate accounts or if it has sufficient staff to do so.
Former employees and experts warn the risk of abuse is high, especially by those seeking to use the feature to influence public conversation, given that subscribers are being promised greater amplification on Twitter.
“The possibility for different kinds of media manipulation and disinformation campaigns to proliferate is enormous,” said Joan Donovan, research director at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.
Long before Musk actually put the checkmarks up for sale, Twitter has struggled with bad actors illicitly selling verified accounts in places like the Middle East, Turkey and Africa.
In Nigeria, for example, verified accounts have traded hands for at least $5,000 in the past, according to Rosemary Ajayi, lead researcher at the Digital Africa Research Lab. One account impersonating Nigeria’s ruling party managed to retain a verified check from 2015 to 2019, accumulating a million followers along the way, she said.
“It’s expensive, but people are doing it, in a country where there is a high level of poverty. So then how [many] more would buy it at the rate of $8 a month?” she asked.
The risk will only grow amid a slew of upcoming elections, from Nigeria, Turkey and Thailand in 2023, to India, Mexico, Taiwan, European Parliament and, of course, the U.S. presidential race in 2024.
Free speech outside of the U.S.
Even as they worry about how Musk’s changes could make Twitter more dangerous, freedom of expression advocates are also left wondering what his avowed commitment to free speech will mean outside America.
Twitter is suing the Indian government over orders to censor critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and has resisted some of Modi’s efforts to clamp down on social media.
“His free speech concerns seem to have only been about the people he thinks should be on this platform, who are U.S.-centric people with a certain kind of politics,” said Choudhary, the Indian digital-rights lawyer.
Even though only a small proportion of India’s 1.4 billion people use Twitter, it’s influential among politicians, the media and activists.
She said it’s unclear what Musk’s relationship with the Indian government will be like – especially considering he has other business interests in the country with his role as CEO of electric-car maker Tesla.
“I rely on the fact that Twitter does not cave in to the pressure of my government and continues to allow me to speak, no matter what I’m speaking against them,” Choudhary said. “I don’t think that he has shown any indication that he’s going to be able to do that, or [that] he’s going to continue, whether it’s the lawsuit or any resistance against the government.”
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