Twitter, which has been taken over by Elon Musk, has dissolved its Trust and Safety Council, the advisory group of around 100 independent civil, human rights and other organisations that used to advise it on content issues, sources told news agency Associated Press.

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The council was formed in 2016 to address hate speech, child exploitation, suicide, self-harm and other problems on the platform.

The council was scheduled to meet with Twitter representatives Monday night. However, the social media giant informed the group over an email it was disbanded, multiple members cited by AP said.

As per images of the email accessed by AP, Twitter said it was “reevaluating how best to bring external insights” and the council is “not the best structure to do this.” “Our work to make Twitter a safe, informative place will be moving faster and more aggressively than ever before and we will continue to welcome your ideas going forward about how to achieve this goal,” the mail, signed as “Twitter” added.

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The ‘Trust and Safety Council’ page on Twitter’s website has also been removed. It earlier used to describe the council as one made up of external expert organisations that advised Twitter on issues including online safety, human and digital rights, suicide prevention, mental health, child sexual exploitation, and dehumanisation.

The development comes days after three members of the council resigned in protest last week. In their statement shared on the microblogging site, they said “contrary to claims by Elon Musk, the safety and wellbeing of Twitter’s users are on the decline.”

"...red lines have been crossed. We know rom research by the Anti-Defamation League and the Centre for Countering Digital Hate that slurs against Black Americans and gay men have jumped 195 percent and 58 percent respectively since Musk's take over. Antisemitic posts have soared more than 61 percent in the two weeks after Musk's acquiring Twitter,” one of them said in the note.

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It must be noted that though Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council could advise the social media on the matters mentioned above, it did not have any decision-making authority and didn’t review specific content disputes.

Soon after taking over Twitter in a $44 billion deal in late October, Musk said he would form a new “content moderation council” to help make major decisions but later changed his mind.

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