Looming elections in US, Brazil pose test for Musk's Twitter

Pivotal elections in Brazil and the United States will present an early test to Twitter's new owner Elon Musk and his promise to ease up on the platform's policies on misinformation. 

“This is the most critical time for this work, right before an election," said Alejandra Caraballo, an instructor at Harvard Law School's Cyberlaw Clinic who has been monitoring the online response to Musk's purchase. “We’re going to see a test run with the election in Brazil this Sunday, when we'll see how bad things get." 

Even if Musk waits until after the elections to make changes, his decision to fire the executive in charge of content moderation raises questions about the company's ability to combat misinformation and extremist content linked to deepening distrust in democracy.