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.

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.”

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%).