What is the evidence linking Twitter and hate speech?
Check out this quick 90-second clip of Elon Musk's surprise interview with the BBC.
Elon Musk talked about a few different things during his interview with the BBC, including how often people use hate speech and spread false information on social media.
"Have you noticed an increase in hate speech?" Mr. Musk asked. "I haven't."
He requested that our journalist James Clayton provide concrete instances of offensive material.
Mr. Musk claimed that the specific messages couldn't be identified and retorted, "Your assertions are baseless and untrue."
The criticism on Twitter has sparked a lot of backlash, primarily from right-wing and extremist accounts, although there are some who don't fall under that category.
What proof exists?
However, researchers have conducted extensive studies and there have been personal accounts that indicate the increase of hate speech during the time period when Mr. Musk has been in control.
A number of individuals who were previously excluded by the previous administration have been allowed to return.
Some of the individuals mentioned are Andrew Anglin who established the Daily Stormer website filled with neo-Nazi views, and Liz Crokin, who is highly influential in spreading the QAnon conspiracy theory.
There are some Twitter users who are not as popular as others but they still were able to benefit from the new ownership. For example, one account which had a derogatory term in its user name was able to obtain a blue verification badge. Another account was bought by a neo-Nazi who shares videos of himself reciting Mein Kampf - which is Hitler's autobiography.
The amount of tweets with Anti-Semitic content increased by two-fold between June of 2022 and February of 2023, as reported by the Institute of Strategic Dialogue (ISD). The research also revealed that there was an increase in the removal of this type of content, however, it wasn't enough to match the surge in these tweets.
The ISD discovered that the number of Islamic State accounts has risen by almost 70%. This used to be a significant issue on Twitter, but by prohibiting accounts, it had been minimized to a small quantity.
According to a campaign organization in London called the Center for Countering Digital Hate, derogatory language significantly rose following Mr. Musk's takeover.
Our personal investigation has revealed a few leads. The BBC looked into more than 1,100 Twitter accounts that were previously prohibited, but had been restored since Mr. Musk took over. Nearly a third of them seemed to breach Twitter's regulations. Some of those accounts contained atrocious materials such as rape or pictures illustrating child abuse. Before Mr. Musk acquired Twitter, these appalling contents had already been a serious issue on the platform for years.
According to a BBC inquiry, Twitter employees have shared apprehension that the organization may not be capable of shielding its users from online harassment, propaganda efforts led by governments, and the harassment and exploitation of children.
What is it that we are not aware of?
There are several complications surrounding this topic. Firstly, American law doesn't provide a specific description for "hate speech". This is because American law is generally more liberal than other countries due to the First Amendment in the US Constitution.
This is a nation where once legal experts who advocate for human rights filed a lawsuit to safeguard the privilege of a neo-Nazi organization to parade in Skokie, a Chicago suburb where many victims of the Holocaust resided back in 1978.
It's possible that Mr. Musk's opinions on free speech, which are widely accepted in America, might have emboldened those who were concerned that they may be censored. However, it is uncertain whether the increase in activity discovered by scholars will continue over time.
Twitter is definitely still filtering out content, and Mr. Musk has strongly objected to the research and inquiries.
He claims to have adopted a politically impartial stance. He says that he has restored not only conservative profiles, but also some liberal profiles that had previously been suspended.
He posted on Twitter that this is not a takeover by the right-wing, but instead a takeover by centrists.
Moreover, he stated that his plan is effective. In the month of December, he posted on Twitter that the usage of discriminatory language had decreased by 33%.
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Approximately forget about the social media message from Elon Musk
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Scientists and reporters have given attention to the most severe material, which contains not just simple jests or rude remarks, but very hurtful language. However, opponents have objected to the fact that the precise meaning of what Mr. Musk considers as offensive language is unclear.
He has recently ceased the allowance of unrestricted admission to Twitter's application programming interface (API) - information that analysts utilize to analyze the platform.
It will be difficult to study the issue in an unbiased way in the future if there is no data available to support it. To increase transparency, Mr. Musk has stated that he has made Twitter's algorithm available to the public in the past.
According to Mr. Musk, taking action to remove bots from Twitter has led to a reduction in the spread of false information since he took control. He also mentioned the platform's community notes function, which enables users to make comments and provide additional information on tweets.
In my personal encounter, it seems like there is a lower amount of false information rather than a greater amount of it," he informed the journalist.
However, there are experts outside who have a different opinion. According to a preliminary research by NewsGuard, which monitors misleading information on the internet, there has been a significant increase in interaction with well-known accounts that spread false information since Mr Musk's control.
After acquiring Twitter, the survey discovered that within a week, the most widely recognized yet deceitful accounts experienced an exceptional rise of nearly 60% in engagement demonstrated via likes and retweets.
Science Feedback, a fact-checking organization that leans towards the left side of the political spectrum, discovered that Twitter accounts spreading false information, referred to as "super spreaders," have seen a substantial increase in user interaction after they began sharing Elon Musk's tweets that contain links to known false information.
More than 1,000 accounts that were restored were found to contain untrue statements about vaccinations and refusals to accept the outcome of the 2020 American presidential election, according to the BBC's internal research.
According to Mr. Musk, he is aligned with the truth and is confident that his approach will ultimately enhance the quality of Twitter.
According to Mr. Musk, the acid test for the system is its effectiveness as a reliable source of truth as perceived by the users. If people consider the system trustworthy, it has passed the acid test, however, if they do not then it has failed. Although no system can be completely perfect in seeking the truth, Mr. Musk believes that their system can be the most accurate compared to others.
Mr. Musk expressed his preference for receiving information from regular individuals instead of journalists. He also challenged the BBC's technology correspondent by posing his own inquiries.
However, it appears that Mr. Musk's statement about the BBC's reporting was not entirely truthful. Specifically, he suggested that the BBC had failed to cover any negative side effects associated with Covid vaccines.
The BBC has written about confirmed, extremely uncommon negative effects that have become known, and evidence of such can be located on the internet - like on these websites: here, here and here.
