Failure to follow Apple and Google’s app store guidelines would be “catastrophic” for Twitter, the company’s former trust and safety chief said.
The company’s new owner, Elon Musk, has said he is a strong supporter of free speech and wants to allow more of it on the site, although critics have suggested this is contradicted by his removal of staff who are not disagree with his views.
Yoel Roth’s departure from the company was slammed last week as a blow after many raised concerns about the abuse of the Twitter Blue subscription by bad actors buying a blue tick to pose as bad actors. real people and companies to commit fraud and spread misinformation on the platform.
Write in the Mr. Roth noted that app stores represent “the single most important check on unrestricted freedom of expression on the consumer Internet.”
He said: “Failure to follow Apple’s and Google’s guidelines would be catastrophic, risking expulsion of Twitter from their app stores and making it harder for billions of potential users to obtain Twitter’s services. . This gives Apple and Google enormous power to shape the decisions made by Twitter.
He added: “Reviewers suggest that app approval could be delayed or possibly even withheld entirely if issues are not resolved to their satisfaction – although standards for resolution are often implicit.
“Even though they appear to be driven largely by manual checks and anecdotes, these review procedures have the power to derail corporate plans and trigger all-out crises for weeks or months at a time. “
Mr. Musk’s mission to “unleash the bird” is also limited by the influence of advertisers as well as the laws and regulations of the countries in which Twitter operates, Mr. Roth said.
He said the European Union’s chief platform regulator had reminded the boss of SpaceX and Telsa that an unmoderated “free for all” would not fly, while members of the US Congress and the Federal Trade Commission have raised concerns about Twitter’s recent actions.
“Longer term, the moderating influences of advertisers, regulators and, importantly, app stores could be welcome for those of us hoping to avoid an escalation in the volume of dangerous speech online,” Ms. Roth.
“Twitter will have to balance the goals of its new owner with the practical realities of Internet life at Apple and Google, which is no easy task for the employees who have chosen to stay.
“And when I left the company, the app review team calls had already started.”
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