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The stalling of a Twitter<\/a> program that was critical for outside researchers studying disinformation campaigns throws into question the company's strategy to comply with upcoming regulation in Europe, former employees and experts told Reuters.
The European Union's new Digital Services Act<\/a> (DSA), one of the world's strictest regulations on internet platforms, has sent tech companies scrambling to meet its requirements on having measures in place against illegal content and explaining the steps they take on content moderation, before the law comes into full effect in early 2024.
Twitter signed a voluntary agreement in June with the EU related to the DSA committing to \"empowering the research community\" through means including sharing datasets about disinformation with researchers. The EU's goal with the law is to create a safer internet for users and have a mechanism to hold companies accountable.
According to Yoel Roth, Twitter's former head of trust and safety, the Twitter Moderation Research Consortium was a key part of Twitter's plan to do that, since it compiled data on state-backed manipulation of the platform and provided that to researchers. \"Twitter was uniquely well-positioned,\" he said.
Nearly all of the 10 to 15 employees who worked on the consortium have left the company since Elon Musk's takeover in October, according to Roth, who resigned in November, and three other former employees who were involved with the program.
The EU law would require platforms with over 45 million EU users to respond to EU-vetted researcher proposals.
Failure to comply with the DSA once it comes into effect could lead to fines of up to 6% of global revenue or even a ban from operating in the EU, according to the European Commission website.
Reuters was unable to determine if Twitter has made alternative plans to comply with the DSA.
In an email, Twitter's head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, said: \"We intend to fully comply with the DSA, have many employees working on DSA compliance internally and have communicated our intent to comply to (EU Commissioner Thierry) Breton and his team.\"
She did not comment on detailed questions about the status of the consortium, how many employees were working on it, or how Twitter planned to comply with the DSA.
Breton has met at least twice with Musk to discuss Twitter's intent to comply with the upcoming law. In November, Breton said Twitter had \"huge work ahead\" because the company will have to \"tackle disinformation with resolve\" and significantly reinforce content moderation. In May, Musk appeared in a video with Breton expressing agreement with the Digital Services Act. Breton's spokesperson declined to comment for this story.
Across the company, at least 5,000 staff (about two thirds of the total before the takeover) have either quit or been fired as Musk overhauls Twitter, hitting the trust and safety and public policy teams particularly hard.
\"I just don't see how the absolutely skeletal staff ... will be able to readily comply (with the DSA),\" said Rebekah Tromble, director of the Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics at George Washington University.
THE WORK OF THE CONSORTIUM
<\/strong>
The research consortium was formed in response to backlash against Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. According to the company's website, its aim is \"to increase transparency around Twitter's content moderation policies and enforcement decisions.\"
Twitter prohibits people, organizations or governments from manipulating conversation on the service, such as using multiple or fake accounts to make content appear more popular.
Early last year, Twitter launched a pilot version of the consortium to disclose examples of manipulation of the platform to some outside researchers.
As Twitter investigated and took down accounts that were suspected of foreign interference, it released data on that to the researchers to help them study the misinformation strategies and where they originated.
In September, Twitter opened an application process to expand the consortium and had accepted about 50 researchers by the time of Musk's acquisition on Oct. 27, two of the former employees said.
Twitter had been preparing to disclose at least a dozen new datasets to researchers before then, the former employees said.
Of the three former Twitter employees, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, one spoke with current employees recently and was told they do not have the personnel or bandwidth to continue working on the consortium.
Five outside researchers told Reuters that without a program like the research consortium, it will be more difficult to study how governments use Twitter to interfere with elections or political events globally.
Two of those who are members of the consortium said Twitter has not sent a memo to close the program formally and previously-released data remain available to them, but they had not received data from it in at least two months.
The research consortium was an important tool to make the internet safer, according to two U.S. lawmakers who introduced a bill last year that would require social media platforms to provide data access to academic researchers. Their Digital Services Oversight and Safety Act has not been voted on.
Rep. Lori Trahan of Massachusetts and Rep. Sean Casten of Illinois also wrote an open letter to Twitter on Nov. 18 asking whether Twitter would maintain the consortium, following layoffs that halved the staff.
Asked about the consortium by Reuters this month, Trahan said failure to maintain the program would be \"a massive step back.\"
The Stanford Internet Observatory, a consortium member that studies internet risks, said it has not received any communication from the program since mid-November and no longer has a point of contact at Twitter.
The Stanford team has published at least three papers using data from the consortium, including one about Twitter accounts that promoted India's military activities in Kashmir, and one on U.S.-linked attempts to spread pro-Western narratives abroad.
If the research consortium is eliminated, \"we will be returning to the 2017 era of limited shared communication about malicious state actor activity,\" said Renee DiResta, research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory.
Cazadores de Fake News, a Venezuela-based consortium member that fact checks online news, told Reuters the research program \"seems to have fallen into a hiatus,\" and the organization has not heard from Twitter since Musk's acquisition.
\"But we hope that it will resurface at some point, as it is a very valuable initiative,\" said spokesperson Adrian Gonzalez.
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推特的研究小组摊位复杂化遵守新的欧盟法律
欧盟的新数字服务法案(DSA),世界上最严格的规定在互联网平台上,使得科技公司努力满足其要求有措施反对非法内容和解释他们承担内容审核的步骤,在法律面前在2024年初全面生效。
的拖延推特程序是至关重要的外部研究假情报活动质疑公司的战略符合即将到来的监管在欧洲,前雇员和专家告诉路透社。
欧盟的新数字服务法案(DSA),世界上最严格的规定在互联网平台上,使得科技公司努力满足其要求有措施反对非法内容和解释他们承担内容审核的步骤,在法律面前在2024年初全面生效。
Twitter签署了一份自愿协议6月与欧盟相关DSA承诺“授权研究团体”通过包括共享数据集对虚假信息与研究人员。欧盟与法律的目标是创建一个更安全的互联网用户和公司负责的机制。
尤尔罗斯表示,Twitter的信任和安全的前负责人,Twitter适度研究联盟是一个重要的Twitter的计划的一部分,因为它编译数据提供的平台和国家支持的操作人员。“Twitter是独特的优势,”他说。
几乎所有的10到15财团的员工已经离开公司10月Elon Musk收购以来,根据罗斯,11月辞职,和其他三名前雇员参与计划。
欧盟欧盟法律要求平台拥有超过4500万用户应对EU-vetted研究员建议。
未能遵守DSA一旦生效可能导致全球收入的6%的罚金,甚至禁止在欧盟运营,根据欧盟委员会的网站。
路透社无法确定Twitter已经替代计划符合DSA。
在电子邮件,Twitter的信任和安全,艾拉·欧文说:“我们打算完全符合DSA,有很多员工在DSA内部合规工作,传达我们的意图遵守(欧盟专员蒂埃里)布列塔和他的团队。”
她没有评论详细关于财团的状态的问题,有多少员工工作,或者Twitter计划符合DSA。
布列塔尼人至少两次会见了麝香,讨论Twitter的意图遵守即将到来的法律。去年11月,布列塔尼人表示,Twitter已经“巨大的工作要做”,因为该公司将不得不“解决解决虚假信息”,大大加强内容适度。今年5月,麝香出现在视频中,布列塔尼人表示同意数字服务的行为。布列塔尼人的发言人拒绝对此置评。
整个公司,至少5000名员工(约三分之二的总在收购前)辞职或被解雇是麝香改革Twitter,触及的信任和安全与公共政策团队尤其严重。
“我只是不明白为什么绝对骨骼员工……能够容易遵守(DSA),”丽贝卡Tromble说研究所的数据,民主和政治在乔治华盛顿大学。
该财团的工作
研究协会成立于应对反对俄罗斯干涉2016年美国总统大选。根据该公司的网站,它的目的是“在Twitter的内容适度增加透明度的政策和执行决策。”
Twitter禁止人、组织或政府操纵对话的服务,比如使用多个或假账户内容显得更受欢迎。
去年年初,Twitter启动一个试点版本的财团披露的例子操作平台的一些外部人员。
调查并记下了Twitter账户,被怀疑的外国干涉,它公布的数据,研究人员来帮助他们研究错误信息策略和他们起源的地方。
9月,Twitter打开应用程序进程,扩大联盟和接受了约50名研究人员的麝香收购10月27日,两名前员工表示。
Twitter已经准备披露至少十几个新数据集的研究人员在此之前,前雇员说。
Twitter的三位前雇员,谁不愿透露姓名,因为害怕报复,一个与当前员工最近和被告知他们没有继续工作的人员或带宽财团。
五外部人员对路透表示,没有程序研究财团,会比较困难,研究政府如何使用Twitter全球干涉选举或政治事件。
两个那些财团的成员说,Twitter不关闭程序正式提交了一份备忘录,比数据依然可用,但他们没有收到来自在至少两个月的数据。
财团的研究是一个重要的工具,使互联网更安全,据两位去年美国议员提出一项议案,要求社会媒体平台为学术研究者提供数据访问。他们的数字服务监督和安全法案尚未表决。
众议员Lori Trahan麻萨诸塞州和伊利诺斯州众议员肖恩Casten也写了一封公开信,Twitter在11月18日要求推特是否会保持该财团,裁员后,工作人员减半。
路透问及该财团的这个月,Trahan说未能维护计划将是“一个巨大的倒退。”
斯坦福大学网络天文台,财团成员,研究互联网风险,说还没有收到任何的沟通计划自去年11月中旬以来,不再有一个联系人在Twitter。
斯坦福大学的研究小组发表了至少三篇论文使用协会的数据,包括一个Twitter账户,提升印度的克什米尔地区的军事活动,和一个在美国与试图传播国外亲西方的叙事。
如果研究财团消除”,我们将会回到2017年的时代有限共享通信对恶意演员活动状态,”蕾妮DiResta说,互联网天文台在斯坦福研究经理。
Cazadores de假新闻Ven乐动扑克ezuela-based财团成员这个事实检查在线新闻,对路透表示,研究项目“似乎已经陷入了中断,”和组织没有听到从Twitter麝香的收购。
“但我们希望它能重现在某种程度上,这是一个非常有价值的倡议,”发言人Adrian Gonzalez说。
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