Leaders of major civil rights groups are denying accusations made by Elon Musk, who said they broke an agreement with him by encouraging corporations to halt promoting on Twitter.
Musk tweeted on Tuesday that “a big coalition of political/social activist groups agreed to not attempt to kill Twitter by ravenous us of promoting revenue if I agreed to this condition. They broke the deal.”
Musk didn’t elaborate on the agreement. He was responding to one among his followers, who accused Twitter’s recent owner of lying when he promised in October that he would form a content moderation council and that “no major content decisions or account reinstatements will occur before that council convenes.”
Over the weekend, after running a casual poll on Twitter, Musk and the platform reinstated the account of former President Donald Trump, who was permanently expelled under previous management after the Jan. 6 rebel on the U.S. Capitol.
Twitter leadership in 2021 feared Trump’s presence and ongoing use of the location may lead to further violence as he continued to falsely claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Earlier this month, multiple civil rights groups urged advertisers to pause promoting on Twitter following a spike in hate speech on the location and after the corporate laid off hundreds of employees, a move they feared would impede the corporate’s ability to moderate hateful and other problematic content.
Derrick Johnson, CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, said in response to Musk’s claims on Tuesday that the civil rights groups “would never make such a deal” and that “Democracy at all times comes first.”
“The choices being made at Twitter are dangerous, and it’s our duty, because it has been since our founding, to talk out against threats to our democracy,” Johnson said. “Hate speech and violent conspiracies can don’t have any secure harbor.”
In an announcement to CNBC, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and Free Press echoed Johnson’s sentiment and said there was “no such deal” with Musk.
“Musk is losing advertisers because he’s acted irresponsibly, slashing content moderation teams that help keep brands secure and gutting the very sales teams chargeable for maintaining relationships with advertisers,” the Free Press said in an announcement. “The predominant person chargeable for the Twitter advertiser exodus is Elon Musk.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of worldwide social motion agenda on the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told CNBC that he found Musk’s tweet “vague.” The SWC, together with 180 other nongovernmental organizations, sent a letter to Musk last week urging Twitter to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism to “degrade the marketing capabilities of antisemites on the social media platform.”
Cooper said the letter “wasn’t a threat” and that the groups didn’t “threaten any boycott” against Twitter.
“We’re principally asking Elon Musk, who everyone knows is a quite creative person, to take leadership on this area,” Cooper said. He said his organization has seen a noticeable increase in antisemitic content over the past two weeks.
Based on Twitter internal communications obtained by CNBC, agencies and types that paused promoting on Twitter after Musk took over the corporate are actually waiting for updates on changes to company leadership, specifically teams working on brand safety. In addition they want answers to questions on how Twitter Blue verification will work in the longer term and the way Twitter plans to forestall brand impersonation.
Under Musk’s leadership, Twitter rolled out and promptly rolled back a Twitter Blue Verified subscription service, after users who purchased the badges were capable of impersonate celebrities, politicians and types. For instance, an account created within the likeness of drug company Eli Lilly published false tweets saying, “we’re excited to announce insulin is free now.” The corporate scrambled to correct the misinformation and have the impersonator’s account suspended.
Advertisers’ concerns will not be limited to the problems raised by civil rights leaders. In addition they wanted reassurances that Twitter will likely be secure from hackers, with so many employees resigning or laid off, they usually’re asking for more communication from recent leadership about changes to the product and company.
WATCH: Musk says Twitter Blue will relaunch on Nov. 29
