Reuters: Twitter has dissolved a voluntary safety advisory board

Twitter has disbanded its Trust and Safety Council. Reuters writes this based on an internal email sent to the council members. In the email, Twitter writes that the advisory board ‘does not fit the new phase of the platform’.

The Trust and Safety Council was established in 2016 and consisted of academics and representatives from civil rights organizations and other agencies. Twitter had created the council to advise the platform on its policies, programs and products. The members provided advice, among other things, on how Twitter could best combat harmful content, such as hate speech.

Reuters writes based on a message from Twitter to the council that it was dissolved on Monday. Also it seems that Twitter’s page about the advisory board has been taken offline. “As Twitter enters a new phase, we are reevaluating how we can best apply external insights into our product and policy development. As part of this process, we have decided that the Trust and Safety Council is not the best structure to do this” , according to Reuters, the email states. Twitter has not yet responded to the news agency regarding the dissolution of the Trust and Safety Council.

Since Twitter was taken over by Elon Musk, there has been a major round of layoffs. About 3,700 employees, half of the workforce, were laid off in early November. 1,000 employees, including the former head of Twitter’s Trust and Safety department Yoel Roth, have resigned themselves.