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Rumman Chowdhury, a data scientist, nonprofit founder, and former director of Twitter\u2019s machine ethics team, had strong words for Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) during a panel at SXSW on Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen your funding is frozen and you don\u2019t know if you\u2019re gonna be fired, and there\u2019s this, like, absolutely unhinged person saying weird things on the internet constantly, you still have to do your job, right?\u201d Chowdhury said. \u201cThe lights have to be kept on because Elon Musk is not the one keeping the lights on, even though he would like you to think that.\u201d<\/p>\n Musk and DOGE, which Musk is advising, have rushed to cut staff across U.S. federal agencies, in some cases in ways that compromise cybersecurity<\/a>. The initiative has gutted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, reduced headcount at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and fired probationary employees at the Federal Aviation Administration, among others. <\/p>\n Chowdhury fears the brain drain resulting from the dramatic reductions and chaotic management style. She says she saw a similar trend at Twitter back in 2022, when Musk acquired the platform for $43 billion<\/a>. Chowdhury was one of many staff let go at short notice after Musk\u2019s takeover.<\/p>\n \u201cSo some estimates say about 20% of [Twitter] had already left before [Musk] even took over, and then he fired another 30% on top of that, right?\u201d Chowdhury said. \u201cSo we\u2019re talking a big chunk of the company being just gone, whether of their own volition or not, but I think the most important thing was that just the looming shadow of [Musk\u2019s] existence completely killed the culture of Twitter.\u201d<\/p>\n Chowdhury added, \u201c[I]t\u2019s scary to see that happening to the U.S. government, an institution that matters significantly in every American\u2019s life and even to people beyond American borders. Twitter was a company, yes \u2014 it was an impactful company, but it\u2019s not the same as a government. [\u2026] [Musk] breeds chaotic environments, and chaos is not where good work happens.\u201d<\/p>\n Chowdhury also took issue with Musk\u2019s vision for Twitter \u2014 now X \u2014 which she said ties in with his approach to politics. She accused Musk of using X as a propaganda tool for his own ideology \u2014 a \u201cmegaphone\u201d to push his perspective to the world.<\/p>\n \u201cLike, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any debate or discussion to be had here,\u201d Chowdhury said. \u201cI don\u2019t think [former Twitter CEO] Jack Dorsey acted anywhere near the way Elon Musk [has] \u2014 he was not on Twitter every day with his opinions, blocking people, you know, amplifying others, calling some people terrorists \u2014 like, Jack did not act that way.\u201d<\/p>\n One report found<\/a> that Musk shared misleading claims about the 2024 U.S. presidential election that were viewed nearly 1.2 billion times on X. In posts this year, Musk has repeatedly made false assertions<\/a> about federal spending, Ukrainian aggression<\/a>, and the role of offices<\/a> like the Federal Emergency Management Agency.<\/p>\n Musk has gone so far as to question<\/a> X\u2019s own fact-checking system, Community Notes, after it corrected posts on X that claimed Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the country\u2019s elected president, had low approval ratings among its citizens. \u201cUnfortunately, Community Notes is increasingly being gamed by governments and legacy media,\u201d Musk claimed without evidence in a post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n