Rumman Chowdhury, an information scientist, nonprofit founder, and former director of Twitter’s machine ethics group, had sturdy phrases for Elon Musk and the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) throughout an SXSW panel on Thursday.
“When your funding is frozen and also you don’t know if you happen to’re gonna be fired, and there’s this, like, completely unhinged particular person saying bizarre issues on the web consistently, you continue to must do your job, proper?” Chowdhury stated. “The lights must be stored on as a result of Elon Musk is just not the one holding the lights on, despite the fact that he would love you to assume that.”
Musk and DOGE, which Musk is advising, have rushed to chop employees throughout U.S. federal companies, in some instances in ways in which compromise cybersecurity. The initiative has gutted the Shopper Monetary Safety Bureau, lowered headcount on the Nationwide Freeway 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 fashion. She says she noticed an identical pattern at Twitter again in 2022, when Musk acquired the platform for $43 billion. Chowdhury was one among many employees let go at quick 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 high 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 taking place to the U.S. authorities, an establishment that issues considerably in each American’s life and even to folks past American borders. Twitter was an organization, sure — it was an impactful firm, however 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 strategy to politics. She accused Musk of utilizing X as a propoganda device for his personal ideology — a “megaphone” to push his perspective to the world.
“Like, I don’t assume there’s any debate or dialogue available right here,” Chowdhury stated. “I don’t assume [former Twitter CEO] Jack Dorsey acted wherever close to the best way Elon Musk [has] — he was not on Twitter each day along with his opinions, blocking folks, you understand, amplifying others, calling some folks terrorists — like, Jack didn’t act that approach.”
One report discovered that Musk shared deceptive claims concerning the 2024 U.S. presidential election that have been considered practically 1.2 billion instances on X. In posts this 12 months, 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, Neighborhood Notes, after it corrected posts on X that claimed Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the nation’s elected president, had low approval rankings amongst its residents. “Sadly, Neighborhood Notes is more and more being gamed by governments and legacy media,” Musk claimed with out proof in a put up.
