When Elon Musk bought Twitter, which he renamed X, he promised an era of free speech.
But, instead of X becoming a bastion of expression, it turned to a cesspool of hate speech making the app more dangerous.
It is clear that Musk’s social media site now caters toward right-wing rhetoric and hate speech, alienating the marginalized communities who use the site.
An analysis has found that the weekly rates of hate speech on the platform went up 50% after Musk’s purchase of X in October 2022, according to UC Berkeley. That includes an increased use of racist, transphobic and homophobic slurs against those communities.
This increase in hate speech on the platform is a sign that Musk’s moderatorship is inept at preventing hate speech on the platform.
According to X’s policy on hateful conduct, things such as attacking people based on their race, gender, sexuality and identity is prohibited.
Furthermore the policy says that the use of slurs, hateful tropes and the incitement of violence are also prohibited. Despite that being the policy it seems X’s current moderatorship has for gone that due to reinstating previously banned accounts and the lack of action taken against accounts who break the rules
As Musk especially posts and reposts right-wing rhetoric on his own account, it is clear that he actively encourages this kind of behavior, amplifying far-right and controversial figures on his platform.
After Musk bought the app, he started reinstating previously banned accounts that belonged to people and groups such as Babylon Bee, Kathy Griffin, Jordan Peterson, Andrew Tate and YE (Kanye West), all in the name of free speech.
If accounts like YE’s are able to spread hateful anti-semitic rhetoric and Musk allows hate speech against queer people and other minorities on his app, it begs the question: Who is free speech for?
While amplification of right wing voices on his platform is more of the focus of Musk, the suppression of left wing voices has not been that much of an issue. Although it is worth mentioning in January of 2024 the accounts of journalists that were critical of Israel were banned though later reinstated according to vice.
Users of the platform are not the only ones noticing the shift toward hate speech, as companies such as IBM, Disney and Paramount have stopped purchasing advertisements from the platform, according to CNN.
Since Musk has taken over the social media service, X has seen a drastic drop in ad revenue. X’s U.K. branch saw a drop of 66.3% of its revenue, according to Yahoo Finance.
The lack of action taken by Musk to denounce and prevent these forms of hate speech on his platform means that he doesn’t care about protecting the marginalized communities on his platform.
Musk’s reign over the app has only become worse; the lack of moderation against hate speech on this platform makes it unsafe.
If you allow people to use slurs and attack marginalized communities on your platform, it doesn’t make it a freer one; it makes it scarier.
