UN human rights chief Volker Turk has urged Twitter's new owner Elon Musk to ensure that respect for human rights is central to the social network following his sacking of around half the company's employees.
Reports of Mr Musk laying off the platform's entire human rights team were "not, from my perspective, an encouraging start", Mr Turk said in an open letter.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said he was writing with "concern and apprehension about our digital public square and Twitter's role in it".
Mr Musk, the richest person in the world, took control of the platform a week ago in a contentious deal.
After completing his mammoth $44 billion acquisition, Mr Musk quickly set about dissolving Twitter's board and firing its chief executive and top managers.
Twitter yesterday fired roughly half of its 7,500-strong workforce.
"Like all companies, Twitter needs to understand the harms associated with its platform and take steps to address them," wrote Mr Turk.
"Respect for our shared human rights should set the guardrails for the platform's use and evolution. In short, I urge you to ensure human rights are central to the management of Twitter under your leadership."
Mr Turk posted the open letter on Twitter, where he has more than 25,000 followers.
He set out six fundamental principles from a human rights perspective, urging Mr Musk to put them front and centre in the management of Twitter.
They included protecting free speech and privacy, and ensuring transparency.
Mr Musk has promised to restore free speech while preventing Twitter from descending into a "hellscape".
Twitter's co-founder and former CEO, Jack Dorsey, said in a tweet that he apologises and takes "responsibility for why everyone is in this situation", adding: "I grew the company size too quickly".
"I am grateful for, and love, everyone who has ever worked on Twitter," he posted.
Folks at Twitter past and present are strong and resilient. They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment. I realize many are angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that.
— jack (@jack) November 5, 2022
Musk blames activists for 'massive' ad revenue drop
Twitter laid off half its workforce yesterday but said cuts were smaller in the team responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation, as advertisers pulled spending amid concerns about content moderation.
Tweets by staff of the social media company said teams responsible for communications, content curation, human rights and machine learning ethics were among those gutted, as were some product and engineering teams.
The move caps a week of chaos and uncertainty about the company's future under new owner Elon Musk, the world's richest person, who tweeted that the service was experiencing a "massive drop in revenue" from the advertiser retreat.
Mr Musk blamed the losses on a coalition of civil rights groups that has been pressing Twitter's top advertisers to take action if he did not protect content moderation - concerns heightened ahead of potential pivotal congressional elections in the US on Tuesday.
After the layoffs, the groups said they were escalating their pressure and demanding brands pull their Twitter ads globally.
"Unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day," Mr Musk tweeted of the layoffs, adding that everyone affected was offered three months of severance pay.
The company was silent about the depth of the cuts until late in the day, when head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth tweeted confirmation of internal plans projecting the layoffs would affect about 3,700 people, or 50% of the staff.
Among those let go were 784 employees from the company's San Francisco headquarters and 199 in San Jose and Los Angeles, according to filings to California's employment authority.
Dublin-based employees of the tech giant received notification that they would be let go, but the Government said it had not yet received a collective redundancy notification from Twitter.
US President Joe Biden said that Mr Musk had purchased a social media platform that spews lies across the world.
"And now what are we all worried about: Elon Musk goes out and buys an outfit that sends - that spews lies all across the world... There's no editors anymore in America. There’s no editors. How do we expect kids to be able to understand what is at stake?"
Major advertisers have expressed apprehension about Mr Musk's takeover for months.
Mr Musk tweeted that his team had made no changes to content moderation and done "everything we could" to appease the groups. Speaking at an investors' conference in New York yesterday, Mr Musk called the activist pressure "an attack on the First Amendment".
Twitter launches monthly subscription with blue badge
Twitter Inc has today launched a subscription service for (US) $8 a month that includes the blue "verified" badge, offering an updated version on Apple's App Store.
In an update to Apple iOS devices, Twitter said those who "sign up now" can receive the sought-after blue badge next to their usernames, "just like the celebrities, companies and politicians you already follow".
A blue badge next to a person's username means Twitter has confirmed that the account belongs to the person or company claiming it.
According to the iOS notification, other features for subscribers include "half the ads", the ability to post longer videos to Twitter and priority ranking for quality content.
Elon Musk flagged the new service earlier this week in his push to monetise the network and make it less reliant on ads. Twitter is currently free for most users.
Twitter's update said the new service with verification will be available in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
"As soon as we confirm it’s working well in the initial set of countries and we have the translation work done, it will roll out worldwide," Mr Musk said in a tweet.
However, according to a tweet from Twitter's early stage products executive Esther Crawford, the new service is available but has not yet gone live.
