Rumman Chowdhury, an information scientist, nonprofit founder, and former director of Twitter’s machine ethics staff, had sturdy phrases for Elon Musk and the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) throughout a panel at SXSW on Thursday.
“When your funding is frozen and also you don’t know in case you’re gonna be fired, and there’s this, like, completely unhinged particular person saying bizarre issues on the web consistently, you continue to need to do your job, proper?” Chowdhury stated. “The lights need to be saved on as a result of Elon Musk is just not the one maintaining the lights on, despite the fact that he would love you to suppose that.”
Musk and DOGE, which Musk is advising, have rushed to chop employees throughout U.S. federal companies, in some circumstances in ways in which compromise cybersecurity. The initiative has gutted the Shopper Monetary Safety Bureau, diminished headcount on the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration, and fired probationary staff on the Federal Aviation Administration, amongst others.
Chowdhury fears the mind drain ensuing from the dramatic reductions and chaotic administration type. She says she noticed an identical pattern at Twitter again in 2022, when Musk acquired the platform for $43 billion. Chowdhury was certainly one of many employees let go at brief discover after Musk’s takeover.
“So some estimates say about 20% of [Twitter] had already left earlier than [Musk] even took over, after which he fired one other 30% on prime of that, proper?” Chowdhury stated. “So we’re speaking an enormous chunk of the corporate being simply gone, whether or not of their very own volition or not, however I feel crucial factor was that simply the looming shadow of [Musk’s] existence utterly killed the tradition of Twitter.”
Chowdhury added, “[I]t’s scary to see that occuring to the U.S. authorities, an establishment that issues considerably in each American’s life and even to individuals past American borders. Twitter was an organization, sure — it was an impactful firm, nevertheless it’s not the identical as a authorities. […] [Musk] breeds chaotic environments, and chaos is just not the place good work occurs.”
Chowdhury additionally took concern with Musk’s imaginative and prescient for Twitter — now X — which she stated ties in along with his method to politics. She accused Musk of utilizing X as a propaganda software for his personal ideology — a “megaphone” to push his perspective to the world.
“Like, I don’t suppose there’s any debate or dialogue available right here,” Chowdhury stated. “I don’t suppose [former Twitter CEO] Jack Dorsey acted anyplace close to the way in which Elon Musk [has] — he was not on Twitter every single day along with his opinions, blocking individuals, you understand, amplifying others, calling some individuals terrorists — like, Jack didn’t act that approach.”
One report discovered that Musk shared deceptive claims in regards to the 2024 U.S. presidential election that had been seen practically 1.2 billion occasions on X. In posts this yr, Musk has repeatedly made false assertions about federal spending, Ukrainian aggression, and the position of workplaces just like the Federal Emergency Administration Company.
Musk has gone as far as to query X’s personal fact-checking system, Group Notes, after it corrected posts on X that claimed Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the nation’s elected president, had low approval rankings amongst its residents. “Sadly, Group Notes is more and more being gamed by governments and legacy media,” Musk claimed with out proof in a publish.
