>>> Twitter's new leader, Elon
Musk, is facing increased
criticism over the rampant hate
speech seen on the social media
app. >> On Monday evening, the
billionaire held a zoom call
with representatives from seven
nonprofits about the disturbing
trend, and one of those leaders
is with us.
Rashad Robinson, president of
color of change.
Rashad, good to see you again.
Tell us first how this call came
about. Was this something that you all
approached him to do, or you
were invited to be a part of?
>> Well, our organization, the
organization on the call, many
of them have been engaged in
these issues, have been engaged
with Twitter for years, but also
a number of us led the $7
billion boycott, the stop hate
for profit coalition.
When they reached out to a
number of members of the
coalition just to be in
conversation, there call sort of
developed.
It developed very quickly.
Elon through a friend of his
reached out.
So it really did come from the
Twitter side.
And it moved very quickly within
24 hours.
We were all on a zoom
conversation.
We ended up sort of engaging in
a conversation.
Many of our groups, mine
included, had already began
conversations with advertisers
or been engaging and pushing
advertisers to both hold Twitter
to a set of principles that they
were going to continue to
advertise, and to continue to
maybe build energy around a
potential boycott if some of the
changes that we've been hearing
about about and some of the
stories that were bubbling up
from inside of Twitter
headquarters were actually true.
>> I know that the meeting had
been described as productive,
that he appeared receptive to
your comments and suggestions,
and that he agreed to hold off
on any major changes to the
content moderation policies
before the election.
Now that also means allowing
people back on to the platform
when they had been kicked off
for breaking their rules.
He's holding off on that, but
was there any indication he gave
as to when that would change
possibly? >> Well, we asked for a
transparent and clear process
for any of those type of
changes.
He committed to that on the
call. And you know, after the call, in
a zoom, none of us tweeted out
or went to the press to talk
about this.
Actually it was Elon Musk who,
you know, very early yesterday
morning tweeted out that he had
had this meeting, tweeted out
what was agreed by the groups
and him.
And now that this is out there,
in his own words, time will
tell.
Word are one thing, actions are
another.
What I will be clear about is
what we addressed on that call
is just the tip of the iceberg
in terms of the issues at
Twitter, in terms of the
challenges.
And holding off to big changes
until the election is very much
about harm reduction, about
making sure that there are not
these swift issues inside of a
platform that has problems even
if they don't make any changes.
So what we are sort of very
clear about is that there are a
lot of issues to deal with with
this platform.
This kind of singular leader who
shoots from the hip and talks
about changes that he's going to
make without oftentimes the kind
of transparency around those
decisions.
And sometimes not really sharing
thoughtfulness about how it's
going to impact a whole range of
people, as well as a whole set
of systems that are impacted by
Twitter. So we are paying close
attention, and we are continuing
to be in conversation with
advertisers about the path
forward.
>> Yeah, of course we saw
according to an organization
that watches social media posts,
500% peak in the use of the "N"
word on Twitter.
In the 12 hours after the
Twitter deal was done.
Some of these sites that
perpetuate these racial and hate
groups and ideas, they see this
as carte Blanche now that the
bird is freed.