There has been a marked increase in hate speech on Twitter, especially racist tweets, following tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover of the social media company last week.
According to Princeton-based independent social media watchdog Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), many users were trying to test the limits of Twitter’s free speech rules, with the usage of the ‘n-word’ having increased to over 500 times during a 12-hour period. In fact, ultra-right-wing platforms like 4chan and Telegram chats dedicated to the extremist group Qanon were mobilised after Musk tweeted, “The bird is freed.”
If you type the n word or Holocaust into the search bar then click latest you can view and report racists that have come out of the woodwork after Elon Musk bought twitter in real time.
— David Leavitt (@David_Leavitt) October 28, 2022
But will Twitter do anything about it?
Additionally, the United Kingdom’s (UK) previously-banned extremist group Britain First, which targeted Muslims, was able to recreate a new account on Twitter on Friday. However, although Musk has said that banning former United States (US) President Donald Trump was wrong, his account hasn’t been restored as of yet.
The Washington Post noted, “One single-word tweet, showing a single racial slur in all capital letters, was retweeted more than 700 times and liked more than 5,000 times. It was tweeted Thursday night and remained online more than 16 hours later.” Some tweets also showed anti-semitic memes and videos glorifying Nazi Germany, while some users reported an increase in the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric by Friday.
At this point, I think every advertiser on Twitter needs to start evaluating ending or suspending their ad buys on this platform. It's clear that there are no serious efforts to rein in hate speech or disinformation.
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) October 30, 2022
Trans activist Erin Reed said Twitter has become a “scary environment,” noticing an increase in anti-trans harassment. She said, “It’s very visible. […] I’m seeing more people in comments with explicit threats, more misgendering, more harmful slurs. I’ve gotten pictures of me getting shot by a shotgun.”
In this respect, LGBTQ civil rights group Human Rights Campaign raised concerns over Musk’s ownership. “Twitter has a right, and a responsibility, to keep its platform from being exploited to fuel a dangerous media environment,” the group asserted in a statement, adding, “This isn’t about censorship or discrimination of ideas — it is about what kind of company they want to be and what kind of world they want to shape.”
Over the last 48 hours, we’ve seen a small number of accounts post a ton of Tweets that include slurs and other derogatory terms. To give you a sense of scale: More than 50,000 Tweets repeatedly using a particular slur came from just 300 accounts.
— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) October 30, 2022
Musk, who calls himself a free speech absolutist, bought Twitter in a massive $44 billion deal on Thursday.
Following the reports, Musk announced that a content moderation council will be formed “with diverse viewpoints” and underscored that the Twitter rules have not changed. Moreover, Twitter’s head of safety and security, Yoel Roth, blamed the trolling campaign as part of an “organised effort” being run by “inauthentic” accounts, reiterating that “hateful conduct has no place here.”