Twitter Sees Unprecedented Rise Of Hate Speech, Experts Say Iranian Regime Is Fooling Us With These World Cup Influencers

At the end of October, Elon Musk closed the $44 billion deal with Twitter and took ownership. Less than a month later, he announced that he wanted to unlock previously blocked Twitter accounts.

Of course, not without first hearing the opinions of Twitter users:

The “amnesty” will take effect next week, he announced the following day.

Since then, hate speech has exploded. While insults against black Americans appeared an average of 1,282 times a day before Musk took over Twitter, they now do so 3,876 times.

A similar picture emerged for insults against gays: before the Musk takeover, 2,506 such tweets were sent per day, after that there were 3,964. Meanwhile, anti-Semitic posts rose 61 percent.

These are the findings of research by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the Anti-Defamation League, and other online platform groups.

But not only racist expressions, Islamist content has also increasingly found its way back to the platform since the takeover of Twitter by Musk. While the actual number is still small, it is growing rapidly: In the first 12 days after closing the deal, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) registered 450 new IS Twitter accounts. In the 12 days before, it was 267.

Figures from 2014 show how active IS can be on Twitter. A survey between October and November 2014 found at least 30,000 IS accounts on Twitter. The outcry was great and so “The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism” (GIFCT) was founded in response. Twitter was also involved in its creation. Today, most major social media platforms use AI technology that automatically detects terrorist content. But the jihadists also used more sophisticated methods: Bypassing moderation and manipulation of content, 590 IS accounts became active on Twitter in 2019. You should now be able to get back on the platform more easily.

According to experts, the changes on Twitter are alarming. Never before has there been such a surge in hate speech, problematic content and initially blocked accounts. Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, states:

Musk has so far denied that hate speech on Twitter has increased. On the contrary: since he took over Twitter, hate speech has decreased by a third.

He gave no further information on this – such as his definition of “hate speech” or the exact underlying numbers.

Twitter researchers, meanwhile, said the surge in hate speech and problematic content began before Musk relaxed content rules. This could mean another rise is imminent.

If that actually happens, things could get tight for Musk, as the New York Times writes:

Because: Shortly after his takeover, Elon Musk fired half of all employees. (Sat)