DESPITE Elon Musk's claims, Twitter has seen an increase in hateful messages since the end of October, according to research. By reinstating accounts banned for spreading hateful content, Twitter has seen an increase in racist, anti-Semitic or homophobic insults over the past month.
The SpaceX founder boasted that impressions of hateful tweets were down by a third from pre-peak levels.
Yet a study has highlighted the disparity between impressions – the number of times content is shown to you, even if you don't click on it – and the number of hateful comments posted.
And according to research by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the number of tweets containing insults targeting the Black community jumped to 3,876 per day after Elon Musk took over Twitter, up from 1,282 daily tweets before he took the helm of the social network.
Hate speech impressions down by 1/3 from pre-spike levels. Congrats to Twitter team! pic.twitter.com/5BWaQoIlip
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2022
Since his arrival, engagement generated by hateful content has increased by 49.5%, according to the report. On average, a tweet containing racist or hateful language attracted 13.3 likes, comments and retweets before the Musk era.
The study analysed tweets during Elon Musk's first week as Twitter CEO and observed a threefold increase in tweets and retweets mentioning the racist word "n**ger" with an average of 26,228 tweets and retweets.
The Hispanic community is also targeted, with a 67% increase in tweets and retweets mentioning the racist slur "sp*c."
Insults targeting homosexuals have also increased to an average of 3,964 tweets per day compared to 2,506 daily tweets in pre-Elon Musk days. Anti-Semitic slurs, referring to Jews and Judaism, jumped 61%, just two weeks after the billionaire bought Twitter.
According to the researchers, these increases were "atypically high," reports The New York Times.
"Elon Musk sent up the Bat Signal to every kind of racist, misogynist and homophobe that Twitter was open for business," Imran Ahmed, the chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, told The New York Times. "They have reacted accordingly."
Recently, Elon Musk had announced the possible reinstatement of previously banned accounts, opening the door to the return of accounts glorifying terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State or the QAnon conspiracy.
Kanye West had also returned to the platform, only to be suspended again after tweeting a picture of a star of David with a swastika in the middle.
Moreover, Twitter has announced that it is ending its moderation of content on Covid-19, further worrying internet users. – ETX Daily Up, December 7, 2022
