Anti-Gay, Anti-Trans Slurs Increased On Twitter Since Elon Musk’s Takeover: Report
Anti-gay, anti-trans and racist slurs have increased on Twitter since Elon Musk took over the social media platform in late October, a new report has found.
Trigger Warning: This story discusses anti-LGBTQI, racist and anti-semitic slurs, which might be distressing to some readers. For 24-hour crisis support and suicide prevention call Lifeline on 13 11 14. For Australia-wide LGBTQI peer support call QLife on 1800 184 527 or webchat.
“Hate speech impressions are down by 1/3 from pre-spike levels. Congrats to Twitter team!” Musk tweeted on November 23, 2022.
But, according to the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), its research showed that in the week ending November 24, the use of an offensive racial slur went up by 197 per cent.
The use of a homophobic term went up by 31 per cent, while the use of an anti-semitic slur went up by 24 per cent, reported ITV.
‘Hateful Tweets Have Spiked’
https://twitter.com/CCDHate/status/1598973835595874311
The results were similar to a study conducted by CCFH for the week ending October 31, the first full week after Musk’s takeover. There were 26,228 tweets and retweets that mentioned a racist slur, triple the 2022 average.
The anti-trans slur tra**y was found in 33,926 (up 53 per cent) tweets and retweets, and the anti-gay slur fa**ot was mentioned in 21,903 tweets (up 23 per cent).
“The figures show that despite claims from Twitter’s Head of Trust and Safety that the platform had succeeded in reducing the number of times hate speech was being seen on Twitter’s search and trending page, the actual volume of hateful tweets has spiked,” CCDH said last month.
‘De-Amplifying Hate Speech’
We will continue to aggressively de-amplify hate speech on our platform. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom of reach. https://t.co/stZLuqQ928
— Ella Irwin (@ellagirwin) December 2, 2022
Musk insisted that hate speech on Twitter was trending downward. “There are about 500M tweets per day & billions of impressions, so hate speech impressions are <0.1% of what’s seen on Twitter!” Musk tweeted on December 3.
“Hate speech impressions (number of times tweet was viewed) continue to decline, despite significant user growth…Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom of reach. Negativity should and will get less reach than positivity,” Musk said adding that Twitter will publish the data on hate speech weekly.
“We will continue to aggressively de-amplify hate speech on our platform,” Twitter’s head of trust and safety Ella Irwin said. Irwin told Reuters that Musk’s focus was on using “automation” to moderate content on Twitter.
CCDH has said that Twitter’s claim does not stack up. “Elon Musk’s PR flunkies insist he is a “free speech absolutist”. That’s nonsense. He’s not. He’s an enabler who disseminates hate and disinformation because he knows it keeps folks on his advertising platform. Call him what he is: a hate speech publisher,” Imran Ahmed, Founder & CEO, CCDH said.
LGBTQI advocacy group Human Rights Campaign said that online hate had real-world implications. “We knew the dangerous impact Elon Musk could have on Twitter and are now witnessing it happen in real-time. This isn’t just a social media problem — it’s a real-life one resulting in increased violence and hate against marginalized communities,” HRC tweeted.
