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| Report: Hate speech is rising on Twitter under Musk |
Elon Musk claimed in a tweet last week that "hate speech impressions" on Twitter had dropped by a third since he took over the company in late October.
However, research by the Center for Digital Hate shows that the amount of hate speech on the platform has increased over the same period.
Before Musk acquired Twitter, the average daily number of black insult tweets was 1,282, but that number rose to 3,876 on Oct. 28, according to a British nonprofit after the acquisition closed. That number rose to 4,650 tweets per day in the week Musk tweeted.
The Center Against Digital Hate, founded in 2018, used the social media analytics tool Brandwatch to gather data, including tweets in English, from around the world.
In a tweet in mid-November, Musk said hateful tweets would be minimized and prevented from being monetized, and users would only see them when searching.
Although Twitter has pledged to reduce the visibility of these tweets, the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that interactions with hate speech have increased since Musk acquired the company, noting that the average number of likes and replies and before closing the deal containing the offending post got About 13.3 retweets. After that, the share of these tweets increased to 49.5.
“Elon Musk pointed out all manifestations of racism, misogyny and homophobia fueled by Twitter and they have responded accordingly,” said Imran Musk, CEO of the Center for Combating Digital Hate Ahmed.
Since Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, the billionaire, who also runs electric car maker Tesla and aerospace company SpaceX, has made dramatic and rapid changes to the platform.
In one change, he fired the Trust and Safety team members who managed the content, despite concerns raised by activists and civil rights groups about the rampant hate content on Twitter.
He also scrapped the idea of creating a content moderation board before deciding to vote on his now 119.7 million followers to grant a "general pardon" to all suspended accounts, posting a tweet accusing former US President Donald Trump of praising him. Back on the platform. after lockdown and will be permanently banned in early 2021 for incitement to violence.
But it seems that clemency is not for everyone, as American rapper Kanye West's account was suspended for "inciting violence" on Friday after he posted a picture of a swastika with a Star of David and expressed his admiration for Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
"To be clear, his account was suspended for incitement to violence," Musk said, commenting on the image of the West, which combined Nazi and Jewish slogans. Note that Musk has previously lifted the ban on West's account.