Racist posts aimed at footballers during the World Cup are now unlikely to be dealt with quickly due to the recent staff exodus, a former boss at Twitter has told Sky News.
Following Elon Musk’s $44bn Twitter takeover, many workers were either sacked by the company to cut costs, or left voluntarily.
Bruce Daisley, who was Twitter’s vice-president for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for five years until 2020, says this could mean “big and, sadly, disappointing headlines” during the Cup.
Mr Daisley said that, if there was to be a repeat of the racist abuse aimed at black players after the men’s Euro 2020 final, Twitter’s processes for moderating posts wouldn’t be as prepared.
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“What we might witness in this World Cup is, irrespective of whether it’s England or other teams, we might witness abuse to players,” he told the Sky News Daily podcast.
“And I strongly suspect that there’s not the team in place now to try to keep that down to a minimum. So, if something bad happens, I think we will expect to see big and sadly disappointing headlines.”
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Players in the England men’s team, including Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, received almost 2,000 abusive Tweets after losing the Euro 2020 final to Italy, according to research from the Professional Footballer’s Association.
Mr Daisley, who was based in the UK during his time at Twitter, added, “If you’re reporting abuse, you want prompt action to be taken.
“I think if most people knew how few people used to work in [the content moderation] team, they would have been alarmed.
“They wouldn’t necessarily feel that the product was taking their concerns seriously. Now, the vast majority of those people have left.”
Earlier this month, Elon Musk ran a poll ahead of his decision to allow former president Donald Trump back onto the platform. Twitter, at the time of the ban, said his account risked “further incitement of violence”, following the storming of the US Capitol in January 2021.
Kanye West returned to the platform earlier this week, after previously having his account restricted for saying he would go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE”.
In posts on Wednesday morning, Mr Musk appeared to mock detractors who have criticised his methods. “Wasn’t Twitter supposed to die by now or something?” he posted, followed by “Maybe we’ve gone to heaven/hell and don’t know it.”
“Elon Musk’s philosophy is freedom of speech,” Bruce Daisley said, “but not freedom of reach. He’s saying, ‘we’re going to leave that tweet up there, even if it is abusive’. And the end result, I think, will be that effectively we see more bad stuff left online.
“It probably will add to the sense that Twitter’s probably become more of an open sewer.”
You can listen to the full interview on the Sky News Daily with Niall Paterson – subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
