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Hate Explodes On Twitter

BarryLaverty

By BarryLaverty
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BarryLaverty Grand Master

BarryLaverty

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Like no one saw this coming...some of you looked forward to it. 

https://news.yahoo.com/experts-track-rising-hate-speech-on-twitter-since-musks-takeover-172224099.html

Experts track rising hate speech on Twitter since Musk's takeover

 
Jayla Whitfield-Anderson
Jayla Whitfield-Anderson
·National Reporter
·6 min read
 
 
 
The Twitter logo against a silhouette of Elon Musk’s profile.
 
The Twitter logo and Elon Musk’s profile. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News and Dado Ruvic/Reuters; photo: Reuters)

Experts have reported a rise in hate speech on Twitter since billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk acquired the social media giant in October.

“I think there clearly is a shift in the sort of content,” social media consultant Matt Navarra told Yahoo News. “We’re seeing people who previously felt that they might get banned or suspended when Twitter was not owned by Elon Musk, and now coming out and testing the boundaries of whatever policies or decisions that Elon Musk is putting in place for moderation.”

In the 12 hours after Musk became CEO, researchers tracked 4,778 instances of hate speech on Twitter. The average of 398 incidents per hour was more than four times the highest pre-Musk average of 84 per hour. They also found that the use of the N-word increased by over 500%.

Elon Musk onstage holding a microphone.
 
Musk in Norway in August. (Carina Johanson/NTB/AFP via Getty Images)

But according to the microblogging platform, Twitter does not tolerate hate speech and provides consequences for those who participate in such actions.

 

“You may not promote violence against ... other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease. We also do not allow accounts whose primary purpose is inciting harm towards others on the basis of these categories,” Twitter’s help center states.

But even Musk himself has contributed to the hate speech and misinformation on the platform. Vice news recently reported that he “shared a picture of a white supremacist who said he’d like Trump to be more like Hitler; failed to prevent users from posting videos of the Christchurch massacre; tweeted a popular alt-right meme; used a known antisemitic trope; and, inadvertently or not, shared a dogwhistle that white supremacists interpreted as praise for Hitler.”

In addition, on Oct. 30 Musk tweeted an article that contained several wild inaccuracies about the attack on the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He has since deleted it. Many of the CEO’s tweets that have shared hate speech and misinformation have been deleted, but the content lives on forever in screenshots.

“Once you put that out there, the world has seen it and you’ve sent the message. And there’s really no unbreaking of the egg, the egg is broken,” Bond Benton, an associate professor of communication at Montclair State University in New Jersey, told Yahoo News.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband, Paul Pelosi, at the 45th Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C.
 
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband, Paul, at the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C., on Sunday. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

As Twitter sees a rise in hate speech, experts say Musk’s tweets are not setting the right example. “His account is pushing the limits,” Navarra said.

Experts fear that Musk’s tweets are inciting further hate speech and are influencing the nearly 400 million users on the platform.

“It’s probably not a good thing to be the owner and CEO of a social media platform — and then you’re leading by example, setting the tone of the platform — posting some of the stuff that Elon Musk has posted in recent weeks,” Navarra said.

Since Musk’s acquisition of the platform his influence has grown, and experts predict he will become the No. 1 influencer on Twitter by January. He is currently the second-most-followed Twitter user, with 120 million followers.

Social Blade, a site that tracks social media analytics, said in late November that Musk had gained 268,303 followers a day on average since taking over, and that he had been posting 84% more often since acquiring the company. In addition to his influence, he has also opened the door for those who had been previously banned from Twitter for using their accounts to spread bigotry or misinformation, or to encourage violence.

“It’s dangerous because Elon Musk made the decision to reinstate people who specifically violated their stated plans using hate speech around trans people specifically, those are the first people that he reinstated — people like Jordan Peterson [and] Babylon Bee,” Michael Edison Hayden, spokesperson at the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit that monitors hate groups, told Yahoo News.

Last month, Musk announced he would provide “general amnesty” to Twitter accounts that were previously suspended for violent threats and misinformation.

In November, former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account was reactivated. He had been banned in January 2021 after his posts incited a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. And on Nov. 20, Musk welcomed hip-hop artist Kanye West, now known as Ye, back onto the platform, after he was restricted for posting antisemitic comments.

Shortly thereafter, West repeated hate speech on the platform and was suspended for posting an image of a swastika inside a Star of David.

Benton says those who are reinstated on the platform will probably push the envelope. “The fact that they’ve been reinstated almost sends a message in some ways that the content that they put out before was actually not that bad,” he said.

Yahoo reached out to Twitter for comment, but the request was unanswered. However, Musk recently tweeted that hate speech is declining on the platform and that @TwitterSafety will publish updates on the issue weekly.

Recent tragedies may also have fueled a rise in hate speech on the platform. “We see a direct correlation between what is said and how people say things and major acts of violence,” Hayden said.

Researchers at Montclair State University found that following the Colorado Springs, Colo., shooting last month, there was widespread use on Twitter of the term “groomer,” which has been used increasingly in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.

A memorial for the victims of the shooting at the Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colo.
 
A memorial for the victims of the shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Nov. 22. (Hyoung Chang/Denver Post via Getty Images)

“It was previously noted as a slur on Twitter prior to Musk’s arrival, and restrictions on its use were in place,” Benton said. “After his arrival, a lot of these kinds of restrictions appear to have been loosened. And in the period after the Colorado Springs shooting, what we saw is this slur, this really hateful slur against the LGBTQ+ community, it absolutely exploded on Twitter.”

Overall, there was an 885% spike in the use of the term, which was drawn around a horrific event in which five people were killed and 25 injured at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colo.

“What we have is kind of a massive explosion in hate around a dramatic event. When we have things like a contested election, or maybe another health scare like COVID, it’s going to be absolutely free-range on Twitter for more of this content to come out, because it’s exactly what we’re seeing right now,” Benton said. “Hateful people can write fliers in their basement describing their hate however they want to and distribute them however they want to. They’re not necessarily entitled to a billboard or a flashing neon sign with their hate. And yet it seems to be that that’s one of the things that Twitter is providing them.”

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ObiOne Proficient

ObiOne

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Just now, RETIREDFAN1 said:

She's right.....the amount of hate speech coming from libnuts has increased exponentially.......but remember.....hate speech IS free speech........

Should have heard all the vile things the libnuts were saying about Kirstie Alley after she passed away the other day.  Libnuts  are some vile creatures.

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country Rising Star

country

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Expected this and more.

The elite hate free speech and will say or do anything to suppress it.

The Pedos are being exposed.

Do not expect the TRAPPED animals to give up and go away easily.

Wait a minute.... Isn't free speech in the 1st Amendment?

Suddenly the Dems are against the Constitution ...again

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RETIREDFAN1 Elite

RETIREDFAN1

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9 minutes ago, BarryLaverty said:

A private company could regulate it and did before Musk slunk in. Why the desire to have poison out there? 

He values free expression.....the Twitter files he has released clearly show that "private" company was colliding with dimnuts to actively interfere in an election......hate speech is free speech......if someone doesn't want to see it or hear it, they have the ability to ignore it.......

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BarryLaverty Grand Master

BarryLaverty

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1 minute ago, RETIREDFAN1 said:

.the Twitter files he has released clearly show that "private" company was colliding with dimnuts to actively interfere in an election

So, basically, some form of revenge or retribution? The N word flying? 4chan losers dictating what our country should be subjected to? 

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RETIREDFAN1 Elite

RETIREDFAN1

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1 minute ago, BarryLaverty said:

 The N word flying? 

The vast majority of THAT comes from libnuts bashing black conservatives......but yes, hate speech is protected free speech.....a lawsuit will eventually work it's way to SCOTUS and win ........

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DannyZuco Proficient

DannyZuco

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31 minutes ago, gamewatcher63 said:

I’m all for regulating speech….let’s start in the classrooms…..let’s videotape every teacher and reprimand the ones that teach Marxist principles….fire them after 3rd warning….who’s with me???

So if we can't teach about Marxism, how are to we to keep from repeating their mistakes. 

Most teachers teach to help the students, not to spread their social and political views......I know there are some wackos out there, but the reality is....teachers try to help, not hurt the younger generations. 

If you want to start blaming people for situations that continue to grow....blame the parents first....for not teaching their kids "right from wrong".....Let's blame the liberals from the 60's for giving us a "Great Society" that has only made us weaker. Let's blame the progressives of the 30s for giving us social programs that are nothing more than ponzi schemes.....Do we need to go back further....how about the early 1900s when idiots decided, voted, and allowed politicians to get their greedy hands on OUR money prior to us having it.....(income taxes)--ruled unconstitutional until politicians changed the constitution with the 16th amendment. 

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ObiOne Proficient

ObiOne

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Just now, RETIREDFAN1 said:

A free choice by the owner to expose the lies, collusion, and corruption of the previous owners......

What is it called when a few from the govt illegally collude with a few private companies to overthrow a sitting president?  What is that word?

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Coach Rab Elite

Coach Rab

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5 hours ago, BarryLaverty said:

“I think there clearly is a shift in the sort of content,” social media consultant Matt Navarra told Yahoo News. “We’re seeing people who previously felt that they might get banned or suspended when Twitter was not owned by Elon Musk, and now coming out and testing the boundaries of whatever policies or decisions that Elon Musk is putting in place for moderation.”

This article’s expert witness THINKS “there is clearly”. What the actual hell Barry?

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country Rising Star

country

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"Fast forward again, this time to 2012. Under the Obama Administration Congress reversed the Smith-Mundt protections."

"One day a young boy was brave enough to blurt out, "The Emperor has no clothes!" At that moment, the propaganda scheme was exposed. Truth set the people free. The story is a perfect allegory of mob psychology and how effective it is."

https://www.fayobserver.com/story/opinion/columns/2020/04/30/opinion-government-propaganda-exposed/112322534/

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EnjoyLife Proficient

EnjoyLife

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5 hours ago, country said:
Pearl Harbor Day. 81 years ago today. Over 2,000 Americans lost their lives. Never forget that our enemies - past & present - attack us because of who we are & what we represent: liberty, prosperity, self-determination, justice under law, which are our birthrights as Americans.
Image

I get what you are saying...but Japans attack on Pearl harbor had nothing to do with "...liberty, prosperity, self-determination, justice under law, which are our birthrights as Americans."

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country Rising Star

country

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30 minutes ago, EnjoyLife said:

I get what you are saying...but Japans attack on Pearl harbor had nothing to do with "...liberty, prosperity, self-determination, justice under law, which are our birthrights as Americans."

Today 81 years ago it happened was main reason to post but what caught my eye was:

"Never forget that our enemies - past & present - attack us because of who we are & what we represent:"

 

 

 

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ObiOne Proficient

ObiOne

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Just now, country said:

And maybe one day Historians will connect the World Wars to what is happening now in the world.

It was a lot harder to do when MSM was people's only source of "news".  Social media is the devil, but it also allows people to share real time information.  But then big tech comes back and tries to censor anything that goes against the "official narrative".  But at least information is getting out to the those that want it.

But the more I learn, it is still the same people/entities are controlling the masses that did during those wars.  Sounds crazy, I know.

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