Twitter Hate Speech Increases Drastically Following Elon Musk Takeover

Before his monumental purchase of Twitter, Elon Musk shared his frustrations over the content moderation and censorship seen on the social media platform. Vowing to deliver a change to create “an inclusive arena for free speech,” the transformation brought on by the tech magnate has now reportedly created a drastic increase in hate speech.

According to a report by The New York Times, accompanying the reinstatement of controversial figures, research groups have now tracked that hateful content has surged on Twitter. London non-profit group, Center for Countering Digital Hate, used the Brandwatch analytics tool to measure that the presence of racial, homophobic, and anti-Semitic slurs have all increased.

The research shows that racial slurs directed towards black people have risen from an average of 1,282 tweets daily to 3,900 following Musk’s takeover. While tweets against gay men (2,506 to 3,946 daily average) and transgender people (3,159 to 5,117 daily average) have increased by over 60 percent.

The Anti-Defamation League has also put together a study showing antisemitic tweets have increased by 40.6 percent, directly citing the fall of content moderation brought by Elon Musk. The Anti-Defamation League also released a separate report that found an increase in anti-Semitic content on Twitter.

Elon took to Twitter to refute the report, calling it “utterly false,” sharing his own research and noting that the social media platform’s safety division would start publishing relevant data.

Findings indicate a 61.3% increase in the volume of tweets (excluding retweets) referencing “Jews” or “Judaism” with an antisemitic sentiment in the two weeks following Musk’s Twitter takeover, compared to the two weeks prior. pic.twitter.com/ZqaSD2ZgyR

— ADL (@ADL) November 18, 2022

Utterly false

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022

Hate speech impressions (# of times tweet was viewed) continue to decline, despite significant user growth!@TwitterSafety will publish data weekly.

Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom of reach. Negativity should & will get less reach than positivity. pic.twitter.com/36zl29rCSM

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022

In case you missed it, Elon Musk recently announced Neuralink’s first human trials.