Twitter Inc. disbanded its Trust and Safety Council on Monday night, according to an email viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The council, composed of civil-society groups, advised Twitter on how to enforce its policies on content such as hate speech before the social-media site was purchased by billionaire Elon Musk.
“As Twitter moves into a new phase, we are re-evaluating how best to bring external insights into our product and policy development work. As part of this process, we have decided that the Trust and Safety Council is not the best structure to do this,” read the email, which was signed “Twitter.”
Twitter didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The action comes the same day Twitter moved to boost its revenue not linked to digital advertising by reintroducing a paid-for subscription service that would show fewer ads and offer other features. Twitter’s new head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, who joined the company in June and took the top job overseeing user content and safety policies in November, told the Journal that the platform is emphasizing moving swiftly to address problematic content, even if it means figuring out some specifics later.
The email was sent about an hour before the council was scheduled to meet with Ms. Irwin, as well as Nick Pickles, senior director for global public policy strategy, development and partnerships, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Since Mr. Musk bought Twitter, it had been unclear what role the Trust and Safety Council would play. Mr. Musk has discussed the possibility of creating a content moderation council, but didn’t explain how it might function in relation to the Trust and Safety Council.
Last month, Twitter postponed the Trust and Safety Council’s regularly scheduled meeting until Dec. 15. Last week Twitter moved up the date to Monday.
On Nov. 29 the council members met without Twitter representatives present to discuss their concerns. Last week three members publicly announced that they would quit the Trust and Safety Council, saying the safety and well-being of Twitter’s users was on the decline.
The council was set up in 2016. The diverse and multinational group represented a variety of interests, focused on topics such as keeping children safe online and battling hate speech.
