“Harassment of service provider employees is a worrying norm, accelerated by proposals to require local staff to be responsible for decisions rather than the company,†Twitter said.
The open internet is more threatened than ever before, the newspaper concludes.
“… the targeting of independent journalists and activists highlights the willingness of some states and actors to use digital politics and manipulation to control political debate,” he said.
The document went on to say that as control of digital infrastructure is increasingly at the center of geopolitical action, these issues cannot be viewed in isolation.
“It is essential that there is a coordinated and multistakeholder strategy to respond to these threats and defend the open, free, secure and global Internet,” he added.
The open Internet is not something to be taken for granted; and in the years to come, decisions will be made that will define its future, Twitter observed.
“The risk that the rhetoric of politics and the language of law will be co-opted and militarized by those seeking to usher in an era of techno-nationalism is real,” Twitter said.
In the document, Twitter outlined five guiding principles for regulation.
“The open Internet is global, should be accessible to all, and should be built on open standards and the protection of human rights,†Twitter said.
Trust, he noted, is essential and can be built with transparency, procedural fairness and privacy.
“Recommendation and ranking algorithms should be subject to human choice and control,†Twitter said.
He argued that competition, choice and innovation are the foundations of the open Internet and should be protected and extended, “ensuring that incumbents are not entrenched in laws and regulations.”
“Content moderation is not just about leaving or taking. The regulations should allow for a range of interventions, while setting clear definitions for content categories,†Twitter said.
The US-based company has faced criticism in the past for various actions taken on high-profile tweets and user accounts and a delay in complying with India’s new IT rules immediately after the notification. of said standards earlier this year.
Under the new rules, social media companies are required to remove flagged content within 36 hours and remove content flagged for nudity, pornography, etc. within 24 hours. a strong forum for grievance resolution.
“As has been noted by a range of voices, the combination of significant administrative penalties for individual pieces of content and expected deletion in short periods – be it an hour or 24 hours – creates a significant incentive for companies to excessively remove content, especially in extreme cases, â€Twitter said.
It hits smaller businesses and newer services harder that have more limited resources to litigate or pay fines, the social media platform said.
These frameworks must be underpinned by strong processes, independent and free from political interference while allowing civil society participation, the Twitter newspaper said.
