Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter began less than a day ago, but his rise to the company’s helm is already having an impact on the platform.
Following the announcement that the deal had been completed and that he had begun to purge some of the company’s executive staff, some groups decided to put Twitter’s moderation rules to the test.
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In the hours following Musk’s takeover, “racial slurs were posted rampantly overnight,” according to the Washington Post.
The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), a non-profit that studies disinformation on social media platforms, reported a sharp increase in the use of the n-word on Twitter on Friday morning.
“Evidence suggests that bad actors are trying to test the limits on @Twitter,” the group said. “Several posts on 4chan encourage users to amplify derogatory slurs.”
Evidence suggests that bad actors are trying to test the limits on @Twitter. Several posts on 4chan encourage users to amplify derogatory slurs.
For example, over the last 12 hours, the use of the n-word has increased nearly 500% from the previous average. pic.twitter.com/mEqziaWuMF
— Network Contagion Research Institute (@ncri_io) October 28, 2022
A spokesperson for Twitter did not respond to a request for comment. According to both The Post and NCRI, much of this appears to be organized on platforms like 4Chan and TheDonald, where users encourage one another to spread hate.
For the time being, it is unclear how widespread these efforts are. As in previous harassment campaigns, a small group of trolls can have an outsized impact, especially during a period of upheaval for the company.
According to Bloomberg, Musk, who has temporarily assumed CEO duties at the company, stated on Friday that he will not reinstate any banned accounts or make “major” changes to the company’s content policies until he can form a “content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints.”
Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints.
No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022
He also responded to a Twitter account called Catturd, which had complained about shadowbans and losing followers, that he would be “digging in more.” Musk has previously said that he wants to do away with permanent bans on the platform and that he would “err on the side of, if in doubt, let the speech exist.”
Notably, the uptick in racist slurs comes one day after Musk appealed to Twitter’s advertisers, saying that he didn’t want to turn the platform into a “free-for-all hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences.”
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However, the rise in hate speech has fueled fears that Musk will reverse Twitter’s years-long effort to clean up its platforms.
He has already fired the company’s top policy executive, Vijaya Gadde, who was instrumental in shaping the company’s content rules. That is concerning, according to Paul Barrett, deputy director of New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.
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