Twitter claims that hate speech has dropped by 30% since Elon Musk took over the platform…
Twitter recently shared findings of an independent assessment, conducted by Sprinklr, on Tuesday July8, the reach of hate speech on Twitter represents
an extremely small fraction of the overall conversation.
Additionally, we estimate hate speech impressions are 30 per cent lower on average vs. pre-acquisition.”
From January 1 to May 31, 2023, Sprinklr says the average daily number of English-language hate speech is 0.003 per cent compared with Twitter’s own, higher, estimate of 0.012 per cent.
But Joe Mulhall, director of research at HOPE not hate, told PinkNews,
While Twitter is claiming to be cleaning up hate speech on their platform, this does not ring true to us or the minority groups affected.
Despite reporting numerous examples of anti-LGBT+ slurs, we’ve not seen action from Twitter. This begs the question as to whether Twitter’s ‘success’ is down to moving the goal posts.”
Media Matters research director, Kayla Gogarty says,
Twitter has gotten less safe for LGBTQ people under Musk’s leadership as he has abandoned much of the platform’s content moderation, pushed anti-trans rhetoric in his own tweets, and reinstated dozens of previously banned accounts, including ones that were banned for anti-LGBTQ hate.
Regardless of what Musk has claimed, data studies from Media Matters and others have found that these actions have resulted in a rise in hate speech on the platform.
And despite his contrary claims, Musk has just admitted that the company is still struggling to court back advertisers, who have pulled their ads from the platform out of concern for brand safety because their content may appear next to hateful content.”
Twitter says the findings of the research is because of its Freedom of Speech, Not Reach policy, which claims to promote and protect conversation.
But this seems to stop when it comes to LGBTQ issues. According to PinkNews,
- In June, Musk declared that both “cis” and “cisgender” were slurs, warning people who engage in “repeated, targeted harassment” by using them on the platform face account suspensions.
- Twitter was deemed to be the most dangerous platform for LGBTQ+ people, according to research by GLAAD
- Prior to this, in March, research by the Center for Countering Digital Hate found posts mentioning the anti-LGBTQ+ “groomer” narrative have soared by 119% under Musk.
- In July, a survey found that 60% of LGBTQ social media users are turning their backs on mainstream platforms because of safety concerns
- A separate survey found 50% of journalists have considered leaving Twitter
Twitter’s statement has also been condemned by many users, including high profile names.
More than 99% of content users and advertisers see on Twitter is healthy.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) July 18, 2023
And the reach of hate speech on Twitter continues to represent an extremely small fraction of the overall conversation.
This past March, Twitter partnered with Sprinklr to understand, measure and reduce… https://t.co/rgCgH0ktkL
(Image, Twitter logo; via PinkNews)
