Hate Speech Reportedly Rises on Twitter After Elon Musk Takeover

 

 

Just a week ago, Elon Musk stated that since his $44 billion acquisition, “hate speech impressions” on platforms had decreased by one-third. However, numerous research organizations discovered that during that time, the usage of racial, homophobic, and anti-Semitic slurs significantly increased.

 

The Center for Countering Digital Hate examined changes in Twitter hate speech using the Brandwatch analytics tool. The New York Times reports that the London non-profit found that before Musk’s takeover, there were 1,282 tweets per day on average that contained slurs against Black people. In the weeks following Musk’s acquisition of the business, that number is said to have increased to close to 3,900.

 

Additionally, CCDH discovered that under Musk’s leadership, the number of abusive tweets directed at gay males grew by almost 60%, from an average of 2,506 to 3,964 each day. Additionally, the number of tweets containing transphobic remarks increased by 62 percent, from 3,159 to 5,117 each day.

 

A secondary report from the Anti-Defamation League discovered a rise in anti-Semitic tweets.

 

“This data suggests that in the two weeks following Musk’s Twitter takeover, the prevalence of tweets (excluding retweets) referencing ‘Jews’ or ‘Judaism’ with an antisemitic sentiment increased by 40.6%,” the ADL wrote. “Unsurprisingly, content moderation has gone downhill quickly since Elon took over @Twitter and gutted the Trust and Safety team. Content moderation matters. People and companies have limits on the hate speech they want to see on their feeds.”

 

Musk tweeted on Friday in response to the Times report that the information was “utterly false.”