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Jacinda Ardern: ‘Whilst I haven’t had any opportunity to engage directly with Mr Musk, the point that I would make is that social media and platforms like Twitter have a huge responsibility.’ Image: Tina Tiller
Jacinda Ardern: ‘Whilst I haven’t had any opportunity to engage directly with Mr Musk, the point that I would make is that social media and platforms like Twitter have a huge responsibility.’ Image: Tina Tiller

PoliticsNovember 1, 2022

‘Unknown territory’: Jacinda Ardern on Elon Musk and Twitter

Jacinda Ardern: ‘Whilst I haven’t had any opportunity to engage directly with Mr Musk, the point that I would make is that social media and platforms like Twitter have a huge responsibility.’ Image: Tina Tiller
Jacinda Ardern: ‘Whilst I haven’t had any opportunity to engage directly with Mr Musk, the point that I would make is that social media and platforms like Twitter have a huge responsibility.’ Image: Tina Tiller

Twitter is ‘deeply involved’ in the Christchurch Call, says the prime minister. Yet its new owner rails against curbs on free speech and just yesterday tweeted disinformation.  

Jacinda Ardern has acknowledged there is “unknown territory” ahead as far as Twitter’s role in the Christchurch Call is concerned, following the platform’s purchase by the obstreperous US billionaire Elon Musk. The New Zealand prime minister said that while she had not engaged directly with the new owner, she hoped he would embrace transparency and take seriously the “huge responsibility” of running the platform. 

The Christchurch Call was launched by Ardern in collaboration with other world leaders and global tech companies as a response to the attacks by a white supremacist terrorist on two masjids in the city on March 15, 2019, which were livestreamed on Facebook and other digital platforms.

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At a recent meeting in New York, Twitter was announced as one of a quartet of partners, alongside the New Zealand and US governments and Microsoft, leading a new project under the Christchurch Call banner. The Initiative on Algorithmic Outcomes seeks to “develop new software tools that will help facilitate more independent research on the impacts of user interactions with algorithmic systems”.

In a statement issued by Ardern six weeks ago, the voice from Twitter welcoming the initiative was Vijaya Gadde, the company’s general counsel and  head of legal, policy, and trust. She called it a “key building block” in better understanding the function of algorithms. She was one of the first people to be fired by Musk. 

The founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, was a vocal advocate for the Christchurch Call, and in September 2019 visited Ardern in her Beehive office to lend his support.  

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and super-user of the platform he now owns after failing to nullify a purchase agreement, is a vocal supporter of a high bar for free speech. He has pledged that the platform will loosen its approach to banning users, to the delight of many, including the far-right and promulgators of misinformation. He said he would established a content moderation council “with widely diverse viewpoints”, in the cause of preventing a descent into a “hellscape”. 

Within hours of walking into Twitter HQ clutching a kitchen sink and laying off a number of employees, Musk had tweeted misinformation, in the form of a far-right conspiracy theory about the attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of house speaker Paul Pelosi. He subsequently deleted the tweet. 

“Twitter is one of the organisations that has been deeply involved in the Christchurch Call to Action and – to date – been a really constructive partner,” said Ardern, when asked by the Spinoff for her response to the new owner’s stance and what it meant for the initiative.

“While I haven’t had any opportunity to engage directly with Mr Musk, the point that I would make is that social media and platforms like Twitter have a huge responsibility. They can be a force for democracy, a force for connection and for good. But also if misused they can do a huge amount of harm.”

She added: “My hope would be that he would stick strongly to the principle of transparency. Because that is one of the things that he has claimed he is focused on. We are too.”

As for the emphasis on algorithms and Twitter’s role in the project, Ardern said: “Algorithmic outcomes is an area where we need more transparency. We need more research and we need more insights into the way that people’s online experiences are curated. So I’ll use that as our starting point. But it’s fair to say that we are in a bit of unknown territory at this point.”

Ardern’s remarks followed a speech delivered at He Whenua Taurikura Hui – an annual conference on countering terrorism and violent extremism founded in response to a recommendation by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the 2019 terrorist attacks on two Christchurch mosques. 

“Nearly three and a half years on from its establishment, the Christchurch Call remains at the forefront of global efforts to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online,” said Ardern in her address at the Auckland hui. 

“Among other things, we have achieved an increase in transparency of online service providers, a stronger understanding of algorithm challenges, and a strengthened and interoperable crisis response system.”

Of the meeting on the Christchurch Call on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in September, Ardern said: “It was clear to me that leaders and the community hold an ongoing deep belief in the mission of the call. And they are more motivated and determined than ever to build on the call’s progress with further action, particularly as we encounter a changing online and societal landscape.”

‘If you regularly enjoy The Spinoff, and want it to continue, become a member today.’
Toby Manhire
— Editor-at-large

The Initiative on Algorithmic Outcomes “empowers independent researchers to understand the algorithms we interact with, and which underpin our online experiences”, she said. “Studying these impacts won’t be easy. We need to be mindful of privacy and proprietary information, and the initiative aims to address these issues. We must make progress in this area, so we can build effective interventions to protect and empower people with choices both online and offline.”

A multi-agency briefing on national security insights, released this morning to coincide with the hui, showed disinformation and misinformation as one of the major perceived threats among New Zealanders, with 84% of those surveyed regarding it as a threat within the next 12 months. The other highest ranking threats in the perception of respondents were natural disaster (87%), hacking and a health epidemic (84%).

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Raf Manji, Opportunities Party leader. Photo: Toby Manhire
Raf Manji, Opportunities Party leader. Photo: Toby Manhire

PoliticsOctober 31, 2022

Raf Manji on Top 3.0, the balance of power, and ruling out a role in government

Raf Manji, Opportunities Party leader. Photo: Toby Manhire
Raf Manji, Opportunities Party leader. Photo: Toby Manhire

The former Christchurch councillor tells Toby Manhire why he thinks the time is right to take on the party founded by Gareth Morgan, why a land value tax is not doomed, and what happens to the party if they miss out again. Plus, inevitably: cats.

Just less than six years ago, on November 4, 2016, outspoken economist and feline nemesis Gareth Morgan headed to the grounds of parliament, invoked Donald Trump, and announced the formation of The Opportunities Party. “It’s nearly Guy Fawkes Day, I guess, so I’m here to sort of light a fuse under this place,” he said. And fireworks there were: an incendiary tax policy launch outside John Key’s house, Twitter tirades, “lipstick on a pig” salvos, attacks on voters as “mostly idiots”, and – well, altogether a screaming, flaming Catherine Wheel of a campaign.

Campaigning on an overhaul of the tax system, a universal basic income and tackling the increasingly inaccessible property market, Top finished in 2017 just shy of 2.5%, with less than half the support required to break into parliament. “It’s been quite sad and surreal to watch Top’s demise,” wrote its deputy leader, Geoff Simmons, when it was all over. Simmons went on to assume the leadership as Morgan disappeared, with a puff of drama, into the ether. 

The Opportunities Party founder Gareth Morgan, left, and his successor as leader, Geoff Simmons. (Photos: Getty Images)

In the Covid election of 2020, Top struggled for traction, winning just 1.5% of the party vote. Simmons stood down and, after an interim spell by Shai Navot, the party turned to its third leader: Raf Manji. 

Manji, who moved to New Zealand in 2002 after working as an investment banker in London, came to prominence across two terms as a councillor in post-quake Christchurch. In 2017, when he launched a campaign to stand for Ilam as an independent, he was approached by Top to join the party, but “I said, look, what I’m doing in Ilam is quite specific … It was all about the earthquake. It was all about the funding gap that needed to be filled,” said Manji, speaking on an episode of the Spinoff’s politics podcast, Gone By Lunchtime.

When the party came calling again in 2021, the timing felt right. “I just felt that … we were in, let’s say, the long-term economic cycles, political cycles, social cycles that [meant] the next election was going to be a little bit different. And that if a party like the Opportunities Party was ever going to have an impact or make it into parliament, this was the time that it would happen. I thought, OK, let’s do it. Let’s have a go.”


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Part of that assessment, he said, was the configuration of the parties, with the National-Act bloc and the Labour-Green alternative in similar polling territory. “MMP is sort of congealed. And we’re offering something new. And I think that helps us.”

What he’s not seeking, however, is any ministerial role – if it makes parliament, the party will not be doing any deal to go inside the tent, he said. “I can rule that out right now … We’re not going to go into government with either, you know, potential bloc. We will sit on the cross benches.” As a party with seats for the first time, they would need to “get our feet under the desk. And we really want to focus on the particular policy areas that we’re interested in. Ministerial positions are just a distraction.”

The goal instead would be to effect change through policy concessions in exchange for the provision of confidence and supply, while otherwise voting bill by bill. “I think that would be quite a powerful position,” he said.  

Raf Manji in 2017, when he stood for the Ilam seat (Photo: Supplied)

The big policy ambition was laid out last month, in the form of a “tax switch” which would see the first $15,000 in earnings tax free, with that revenue hole filled by a land value tax, leaving it fiscally neutral. That tax – an LVT – would apply a 0.75% tax on the value of residential land, irrespective of the value of any buildings. 

Given the conniptions prompted by the prospect of a comprehensive capital gains tax – a response that led Jacinda Ardern to exile the idea for the duration of her political lifetime – surely an annual tax on land value would be as, if not more, powerful political kryptonite? “I don’t think so,” said Manji. There was growing acceptance of the need for a ”intergenerational conversation” on access to housing, he said. The LVT was ultimately about tacking the “big social issue” of “entrenched poverty in certain parts of our society”.

Top’s likeliest path to parliament – likelier than hitting the 5% party vote threshold –  is through winning a seat, Manji said. That seat is Ilam, where he finished second to Gerry Brownlee and ahead of the Labour candidate in 2017. “We’ve thought a lot about Ilam over the last six months, we’ve looked at the numbers. We think we can win it,” he said. That calculation was in large part based on the fact that Brownlee, who lost the seat to Labour’s Sarah Pallett in 2020, is now list-only. 

What if it doesn’t work out – is 2023 the last-chance saloon for Top? “I would probably say yes,” said Manji. “Although,” he added, pointing to the review of electoral law currently under way, “if the threshold gets lowered …”

And finally to the elephant in the room: cats. Did he share the founding Top leader’s famous enthusiasm for wrenching moggies off the streets? “I love cats,” he said. “I’d say I’m more of a cat guy than a dog guy.” The only impediment: “I do, unfortunately, suffer from an allergic reaction.”


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