New Twitter owner Elon Musk declared last month that “hate speech impressions” had dramatically fallen on the platform since he took over.
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.
Both groups expressed alarm with what they are seeing occur on Twitter, one of the most influential communications platforms in the world.
He then reiterated his claim that “hate speech impressions,” or the number of times a tweet containing hate speech has been viewed, “continue to decline” since his early days of owning the company when the platform saw a spike in hate speech designed to test Musk’s tolerance.
The research by CCDH and ADL purport to show a different phenomenon, however, highlighting the frequency and incidences of hate speech on the platform in general.
Musk said going forward, Twitter will share its data on hate speech impressions on a weekly basis. »
