A report in the Washington Post found that since Elon Musk acquired Twitter, there has been a 500% surge in the use of the “N-word” on the platform prompting LeBron James to call out Twitter’s new owner.
James tweeted, “I dont know Elon Musk and, tbh, I could care less who owns twitter. But I will say that if this is true, I hope he and his people take this very seriously because this is scary AF. So many damn unfit people saying hate speech is free speech.”
I dont know Elon Musk and, tbh, I could care less who owns twitter. But I will say that if this is true, I hope he and his people take this very seriously because this is scary AF. So many damn unfit people saying hate speech is free speech. https://t.co/Sy0jvXIBnC
— LeBron James (@KingJames) October 29, 2022
Musk finalized a $44 billion deal to acquire the social media giant last Thursday and has already made headlines by carrying a kitchen sink in with him on his first day of work and then firing a few top executives within the company amidst reports that he may fire up to 75% of the entire workforce.
Musk did respond, not specifically to James’ tweet, but to the situation in general. Musk tweeted, “To be super clear, we have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies.”
To be super clear, we have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies https://t.co/k4guTsXOIu
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 29, 2022
Musk has had the company for less than a week, and to call him out for any new “hate speech” happening on Twitter shows the emotional reaction people have to things rather than taking the time to think through circumstances. If hate speech has increased, Musk has not had time to do anything about it.
Yoel Roth, Twitter’s Head of Safety & Integrity, had another take on the topic. He tweeted, “Nearly all of these accounts are inauthentic. We’ve taken action to ban the users involved in this trolling campaign – and are going to continue working to address this in the days to come to make Twitter safe and welcoming for everyone.”
Musk does have a plan to combat any type of hate speech on Twitter, including the hate speech referred to by James. He outlined a new content moderation strategy just days after acquiring the company in tweet that read: “Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints. No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.”
