A nonprofit organization that researches links between social media, hate and extremism has been threatened with a lawsuit by X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

A nonprofit organization that researches links between social media, hate and extremism has been threatened with a lawsuit by X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

  • Nepenthe@kbin.social
    1·
    11 months ago

    There are multiple links in that article. Among them,

    Researchers at the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that the number of tweets containing one of several different racial slurs soared in the week after Musk bought Twitter.

    A racial epithet used to attack Black people was found more than 26,000 times, three times the average for 2022. Use of a slur that targets trans people increased 53%, while instances of an offensive term for homosexual men went up 39% over the yearly average.

    The one Musk cited, the platform’s failure to remove hate speech that’s pretty infamous at this point, focuses on paying users who break company policy only to have their content boosted instead of removed. While I think it’s a small test, it’s been a widely known failing for years that’s not only increased noticeably under his ownership but is being exacerbated by Blue.

    Anyone with time on their hands can verify how little Twitter cares about abusive content. Musk himself has been given the opportunity to rectify this now that it’s been called to his attention, as the companies they criticize usually do.

    Instead of doing anything useful to retain users and advertisers, he’s throwing a tantrum about it that should go directly against his own views on free speech and the free market.