NYT TECHNOLOGY: Hate Speech’s Rise on Twitter Is Unprecedented, Researchers Find
By Sheera Frenkel and Kate CongerSection: Technology
Source: New York Times
Published Date: December 2, 2022 at 02:00AM
Problematic content and formerly barred accounts have increased sharply in the short time since Elon Musk took over, researchers said.
Before Elon Musk bought Twitter, slurs against Black Americans showed up on the social media service an average of 1,282 times a day. After the billionaire became Twitter’s owner, they jumped to 3,876 times a day.
Slurs against gay men appeared on Twitter 2,506 times a day on average before Musk took over. Afterward, their use rose to 3,964 times a day.
And antisemitic posts referring to Jews or Judaism soared more than 61% in the two weeks after Musk acquired the site.
Also Read |Twitter exec says moving fast on moderation, as harmful content surges
These findings — from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the Anti-Defamation League and other groups that study online platforms — provide the most comprehensive picture to date of how conversations on Twitter have changed since Musk completed his $44 billion deal for the company in late October.
The shift in speech is just the tip of a set of changes on the service under Musk. Accounts that Twitter used to regularly remove — such as those that identify as part of the Islamic State group, which were banned after the U.S. government classified it as a terror group — have come roaring back. Accounts associated with QAnon, a vast far-right conspiracy theory, have paid for and received verified status on Twitter, giving them a sheen of legitimacy.
These changes are alarming, researchers said, adding that they had never seen such a sharp increase in hate speech, problematic content and formerly banned accounts in such a short period on a mainstream social media platform.
Read more at: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/02/technology/twitter-hate-speech.html
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