Hate Speech Dramatically Surges on Twitter After Elon Musk's Takeover
(CNN) -- New Twitter owner Elon Musk declared last month that "hate speech impressions" had dramatically fallen on the platform since he took over.It was a remarkable claim, given that Musk has executed mass layoffs and chased away hundreds of employees, draining the company of much-needed resources to enforce content moderation policies, which the billionaire has also publicly criticized.On Friday, two watchdog groups published research that indicated Musk's claim simply did not hold water, offering one of the clearest pictures to date of the surging tide of hate speech on the platform.The Center for Countering Digital Hate and Anti-Defamation League both said in reports that the volume of hate speech on Twitter has grown dramatically under Musk's stewardship.Specifically, the Center for Countering Digital Hate said the daily use of the n-word under Musk is triple the 2022 average and the use of slurs against gay men and trans persons are up 58% and 62%, respectively.And the Anti-Defamation League said in a separate report that its data shows "both an increase in antisemitic content on the platform and a decrease in the moderation of antisemitic posts."Both groups expressed alarm with what they are seeing occur on Twitter, one of the most influential communications platforms in the world.
The Anti-Defamation League described the deteriorating state-of-affairs as a "troubling situation" that "will likely get worse, given the reported cuts to Twitter's content moderation staff."The reports come just hours after Kanye West's Twitter account was suspended after he posted an altered image of the Star of David with a swastika inside and appeared on Alex Jones' Infowars, where he praised Hitler.Imrad Ahmed, chief executive of.