Hate speech spikes on Twitter after Musk takeover, poll shows

Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, declared last month that “hate speech impressions” have dropped dramatically on the platform since he took over.

It was a remarkable claim given that Musk executed massive layoffs and expelled hundreds of employees, draining the company of much-needed resources to enforce content moderation policies, which the billionaire has also publicly criticized.

On Friday, two watchdog groups published research that indicated Musk’s claim simply didn’t hold up, offering one of the clearest pictures yet of the rising tide of hate speech on the platform.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate and the Anti-Defamation League said in reports that the volume of hate speech on Twitter has grown dramatically under Musk’s administration.

Specifically, the Center for Countering Digital Hate said daily use of racist slurs under Musk is triple the 2022 average, and use of slurs against gays and transgender people has increased by 58% and 62%, respectively.

And the Anti-Defamation League said in a separate report that its data shows “both an increase in anti-Semitic content on the platform and a decrease in moderation of anti-Semitic posts.”

Both groups expressed concern about what they are seeing happening on Twitter, one of the most influential communication platforms in the world.

The Anti-Defamation League described the deteriorating state of affairs as a “worrying situation” that is “likely to get worse, given reported cuts to Twitter’s content moderation team”.

The reports come just hours after Kanye West’s Twitter account was suspended after he posted an altered image of the Star of David with a swastika inside and appeared on Alex Jones’ Infowars where he praised Hitler.

Imrad Ahmed, chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, said Musk “sent the bat signal to all manner of racists, misogynists and homophobes that Twitter was open for business and they responded accordingly”.

“A safe space for hate is a hostile environment for most decent people,” added Ahmed, “by comparison, who would want to sit in a cafe or pub where madmen are shouting profanities and bigotry, let alone have the gall to claim that it was a democratically essential debate?”

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday morning.

Musk has repeatedly said he wants to reverse many of the content moderation policies that were in place before he took over the company and has signaled he only wants to ban speech when it incites violence or violates the law.

The billionaire has already rolled back Twitter’s previous Covid misinformation rules and said he plans to grant “general amnesty” to people who were previously banned for violating Twitter’s rules.

“These changes are already affecting the proliferation of hate on Twitter, and the return of extremists of all types to the platform has the potential to fuel the spread of extremist content and disinformation,” the Anti-Defamation League said. “This can also lead to increased harassment of users.”