Twitter Hit With Coordinated "Trolling" After Elon Musk Purchase

Following Elon Musk‘s completed purchase of Twitter, the social media platform has been at the center of a coordinated “trolling” effort. The campaign was brought to light by Yoel Roth, Twitter‘s Head of Safety and Security, who tweeted about an “organized effort” being orchestrated by a group, as part of a campaign to create the appearance of weakened content guidelines. “Let’s talk for a minute about slurs, hateful conduct, and trolling campaigns. Bottom line up front: Twitter’s policies haven’t changed. Hateful conduct has no place here. And we’re taking steps to put a stop to an organized effort to make people think we have,” said Roth.

Roth noted that more than 300 accounts posted 50,000 tweets using the same slur, while research groups tracked a 500 percent increase in the use of the n-word, tracked to sites like 4chan as users there are encouraging one another to post hateful content.

The news comes after Elon Musk fired Twitter’s CEO and executives while noting plans to form a council to handle moderation decisions. There are also reports citing that Musk has asked managers to begin drawing up lists of employees to cut, despite warnings that layoffs could be harmful to the site’s operations.

Let’s talk for a minute about slurs, hateful conduct, and trolling campaigns.

Bottom line up front: Twitter’s policies haven’t changed. Hateful conduct has no place here. And we’re taking steps to put a stop to an organized effort to make people think we have.

— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) October 30, 2022

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