Since taking over Twitter by Elon Musk, last October there was a significant increase in incidents of hate speech on the social network. The analysis was carried out by two specialized centers. In particular, the Center for Countering Digital Hate highlights that since the beginning of the Musk era, the use of words nigger and niggas (extremely obnoxious English equivalents of the Italian «negro»), is tripled compared to the 2022 average while the Insults against gays and transgender people increased by 58% and 62% respectively. In a separate report cited by CNN League Against Defamation indicates an increase in salary Anti-Semitic Matrix, due to a decrease in its moderation. Despite what was explained by Tesla’s owner, who said on November 23 that hate speech on the platform was declining.
The new “aggressive” line in the moderation department
“It’s like Elon Musk ‘projected the Batsignal to lure all sorts of racists, misogynists and homophobes onto Twitter,'” he said. Imran Ahmed, executive director of the Center for Countering Digital Hate. The billionaire reinstated the accounts of almost all banned users on the social network a few days ago. Ahmed’s words are corroborated by the layoffs that have left about half of the company’s employees at home, including large parts of the moderation department. Unsurprisingly, much of that workforce has been replaced by automated systems, explained the new head of Trust and Security Ella Irwin. The employee said that according to Musk, Twitter has erroneously put too much manpower into moderating content in the past. “He encouraged the team to do it take more risks», Irwin emphasized, «to move fast and make the platform safe».
Automatic removal
One of the consequences is that the social is now automatically removed without making one preventive check, posts reported by users that have been successfully reported in the past. In addition, Twitter acts in restricting the hashtags most commonly associated with abuse without worrying too much about the impact on the benign uses that might be affected. “It gave us the freedom to be as aggressive as possible,” explained Irwin.
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