{"id":89516,"date":"2022-11-28T14:13:21","date_gmt":"2022-11-28T13:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hiig.de\/?p=89516"},"modified":"2024-10-28T10:08:37","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T09:08:37","slug":"twitter-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hiig.de\/en\/twitter-policies\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning back time for Content Moderation? How Musk’s takeover is affecting Twitter’s rules"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Elon Musk\u2019s takeover of Twitter marks a critical moment in the history of platforms. Within days, Musk moved to publicly question some of the policies that the platform has developed over the years. A closer look reveals that \u2013 at least until now \u2013 Twitter’s content policies have not changed. Yet, Musk\u2019s leadership seems to aim at rolling back 15 years of learning and elaborating content moderation at Twitter and the industry. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk has catapulted the platform into the centre of public attention. Within days after the completion of the acquisition, the newly declared CEO of the platform posted verified misinformation,<\/a> let go of two-thirds of Twitter\u2019s employees, re-instated Donald Trump on the platform following a Twitter poll on the topic and announced the introduction of a subscription model for verification. Rarely has the power that platforms wield over governing the public discourse received this much media attention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key way in which platforms exert this power is through content moderation \u2013 i.e. by writing and enforcing rules about which kind of content is allowed and prohibited on their services. As internet platforms have emerged as central venues for communication and interactions, and due to the often absence of other forms of regulation, the way in which they govern user activities has tremendous consequences for how our increasingly digital society is organised. This has been visible in controversies around issues such as hate speech and misinformation which point to the role and responsibility of platforms for the governance of public speech and communication dynamics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk\u2019s makeover of Twitter   <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Given Musk’s earlier vocal criticism of the stifling of free speech through Twitter\u2019s content policies and his apparent announcement of policy changes via tweets<\/a>, uncertainty arose among users, journalists and advertisers about the direction that the platform would take and how it would go about enforcing its prior policies. Further confusion ensued when online news site \u201cThe Hill\u201d reported that<\/a> Twitter had removed its misinformation policies from the Twitter Rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk attempted to calm the waves by assuring that \u201cNo major content decisions’<\/a>‘ would be made before the formation of a new content moderation council and that \u201cTwitter\u2019s strong commitment to content moderation remains absolutely unchanged\u201d<\/a>. He also seemed eager to emphasise the continuing validity of the \u201cThe Twitter Rules\u201d \u2013 Twitter\u2019s central body of content policies \u2013 tweeting that \u201cTwitter rules will evolve over time, but they\u2019re currently the following\u201d<\/a>. However, even after this statement, Musk seemed to announce changes to Twitter\u2019s policy on parody accounts in a tweet.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An intricate web of policies <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A closer look at the historical evolution of Twitter\u2019s policies based on our database of platform policies \u2013 the Platform Governance Archive<\/a> \u2013 can clear up some of the current confusion and provide valuable context for making sense of the platform\u2019s current transformation. Twitter\u2019s Community Guidelines, \u201cThe Twitter Rules\u201d, first appeared on the site in January 2009<\/a>, about two and a half years after Twitter was launched to the public<\/a>. Since then, they have functioned as the central reference point for which kind of content and behaviour is allowed and forbidden on the platform, and Twitter often calls upon its users to check if their conduct is in line with the Twitter Rules. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, the size and scope of the Twitter Rules have grown enormously and they ballooned from a brief set of rules with 567 words (a one-page printout) into a complex web of policies with a total of 19,131 words that is spread across different URLs. The growth of Twitter\u2019s Community Guidelines happened in waves and has picked up, especially since the second half of 2017 with increasing public and policy pressure. As of now, the Twitter Rules<\/a> link to 19 sub-pages which explicate the policies referenced on the main page and which themselves link to further pages such as other policies, help pages and appeal forms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The current structure of the Twitter Rules (image by authors) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The opacity of the Twitter Rules <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To define exactly where the Twitter Rules begin and end is therefore by itself a difficult task, especially since Twitter has begun to create specific policies outside of the Twitter Rules such as a \u201cCrisis misinformation policy<\/a>\u201d and a policy on COVID-related misinformation. All of these policies are listed on Twitter\u2019s <\/a>\u201cRules and policies<\/a>\u201d page. But even if a policy has been included in the Twitter Rules, it is important to note that the corresponding sites have sometimes existed before they became part of the Twitter Rules or continued to exist after they were removed from it. The inclusion of a policy into the Twitter Rules does therefore not equate to the inception or cessation of this policy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This points to one of the complexities in understanding Twitter\u2019s Community Guidelines \u2013 and platforms’ Community Guidelines more generally \u2013 which is that, unlike more legalistic policies such as the Terms of Service or the Privacy Policy, their limits are not explicitly defined. As the Twitter Rules evolved from a brief set of rules into an extensive rulebook with ever-more specific subsections which are spread across various URLs, it became increasingly harder for users to navigate the set of rules and understand when they have changed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is complicated by the fact that \u2013 unlike Twitter\u2019s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy \u2013  the overarching Twitter Rules page does not include an effective date or a date of its last revision, although most of its subpages do. The company furthermore does not offer an archive of previous versions of the Twitter Rules such as those offered for its Terms of Service<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twitter\u2019s content policies remain unchanged <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As part of our efforts to track and analyse platform policy changes at the Platform Governance Archive<\/a>, we have been tracking every change of the Twitter Rules, i.e. the whole web of policies that they constitute, from the inception of the policy in 2009. Since Musk finalised his takeover of Twitter on October 27, none of these policies have changed. This also applies to the policy on parody accounts <\/a>which Musk seemed to  question in his tweets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also did not detect any change in the platform\u2019s Terms of Service or Privacy policy in connection to Musk\u2019s takeover. However, there has been an update to the \u201cTwitter Purchaser Terms of Service<\/a>\u201d on November 9 which, among other things, introduced a clause that seemed aimed at preventing identity misrepresentation for the new subscription model. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Twitter\u2019s  rules for content moderation have not yet changed, they could at any minute and going forward it will be vital to track how they will evolve in connection to Musk\u2019s takeover. Studying these changes from a historical perspective will then allow us to assess if and how Musk\u2019s conception of the public sphere is reshaping the rules of the platform. Any change will therefore be closely monitored by us and soon published in an updated dataset of the Platform Governance Archive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You cannot run social media like it\u2019s 2008<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Musk\u2019s takeover of Twitter marks  a critical moment in the formation of platforms that surfaces key issues of platforms, power, and governance. Among the many issues this is raising, we have highlighted here the aspect of platform policies. Looking at our archive, we see the long trajectory and development that Twitter\u2019s policies have been taking in the 16-year existence of the platform. Following massive public, economic and policy pressure, Twitter has built up often elaborate policies on challenging issues such as misinformation and hate speech, and also expert teams to enforce policies and safeguard users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the core policies have not yet changed, the recent weeks have shown that Elon Musk does neither appreciate nor fully understand the complexity and importance of content moderation. He is in fact tweeting about content moderation like it was 2008. When insisting that Twitter is at heart a tech company, Musk is chiming in on a song that Mark Zuckerberg and other platform leaders have long abandoned \u2013 after singing it loudly in the first decade of social media<\/a>. In those years, social media platforms understood that they needed to take responsibility for content and interactions on their site. That, in fact, content moderation \u201cis the essence of platforms, it is the commodity they offer\u201d, as Tarleton Gillespie has written in 2018 (Gillespie 2018, p. 204). Social media platforms have at least partly learned how to deliver in this role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rules without enforcement? <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Musk now departs from all this drastically and impetuously. While the core policies might still be in place, the teams managing rules, safety, and enforcement at Twitter have been drastically reduced, if still existent at all. Those who remain at the company lack backing from leadership. This certainly casts doubt on the future of Twitter\u2019s elaborated body of content policies and enforcement system and raises the question: What are all the rules worth if there is no one left to enforce them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Gillespie, T. (2018). Custodians of the Internet: Platforms, Content Moderation, and the Hidden Decisions That Shape Social Media. United Kingdom: Yale University Press.<\/p>\n