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Use of the N-Word Tripled on Twitter in the First Week of Musk's Ownership
Use of the N-word racial slur increased threefold on Twitter during the first week after Elon Musk's takeover of the social media site, despite assurances it had reduced hateful activity on its platform, an explosive new study revealed.
An investigation by the nonprofit U.K.-based Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) found the use of racist, homophobic, transphobic, and anti-Semitic slurs soared significantly after Musk took over Twitter on October 27, Newsweek and the Associated Press reported.
The study revealed in his first week, the anti-Semitic slur 'k***', and racist terms 'w**' and 's***' - appeared in 2,598, 1,256, and 935 retweets. That's an increase of 23%, 62%, and 77% respectively compared to the average for 2022.
Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter began on April 14, 2022, and concluded on October 27, 2022
A tweet Musk sent out on November 4 disputing what appeared in the press claiming that 'hateful speech ... declined below our prior norms'
Musk began buying shares of Twitter, Inc. in January 2022, eventually becoming the company's largest shareholder in April with a 9.1% ownership stake, a report said.
In a November 4 tweet Musk claimed that 'hateful speech' had fallen under his leadership and disputed what has been reported in the press.
'Twitter's strong commitment to content moderation remains absolutely unchanged. In fact, we have actually seen hateful speech at times this week decline *below* our prior norms, contrary to what you may read in the press,' he tweeted.
Imran Ahmed, a former British political advisor and founder of the CCDH, told Newsweek that Twitter has become 'a postulant well of hate' under Musk's reign.
Musk's acquisition of the influential platform began on April 14, 2022, and concluded on October 27.
The business tycoon began buying shares of Twitter, Inc. in January 2022, eventually becoming the company's largest shareholder in April with a 9.1% ownership stake, a report said.
The CCDH revealed in their study that offensive terms used to attack black people was found more than 26,000 times, three times the average for 2022, the Associated Press reported.
Disparaging phrases that target trans people increased 53%, while instances of an offensive term for homosexual men went up 39% over the yearly average.
Offensive terms attacking Jews and Hispanics had also increased on the social media platform.
In the week beginning October 31, the n-word was used in 26,228 tweets and retweets, three times the 2022 average.
During the same period, 33,926 tweets and retweets included the transphobic slur 't*****', while 21,903 featured the homophobic insult 'f*****'. These represented an increase of 53% and 39%, respectively, on the 2022 average, the news outlet reported.
The CCDH used analysis site Brandwatch for its research, including tweets, retweets and quote tweets worldwide in the English language, Newsweek reported.
Researchers looked at nearly 80,000 English-language tweets and retweets from around the world that contained one of the offensive terms they searched for.
Because of the disturbing rise of racist speech on Twitter, CCDH founder Imran Ahmed said there is a need for government intervention and an online safety bill to ensure that 'social media companies cannot undermine our nation's unity.'
'Nobody wants a world in which people feel they can attack others with racial slurs with impunity. Elon Musk described such a world to advertisers as a 'hellscape' and said he would do anything he could to prevent it,' Ahmed said.
Ahmed pointed out that Twitter's head of safety claimed to have 'successfully contained' the situation, but disputed that.
'Our research shows this was untrue, which might explain why his head of safety abruptly resigned the day our research came out, showing that Twitter was awash with hate,' Ahmed said, in part.
He added: 'Hate is a disease that will thrive wherever the immune system is weak."