Elon Musk has responded to considerations raised by plenty of individuals, together with NBA star Lebron James, concerning the quantity of hate speech that has been seen on Twitter following the completion of Musk’s $44 billion buyout of the social media organisation.
Last week, James responded to a report within the Washington Post that claimed that using the ‘N-word’ – a racial slur used to focus on black and African American individuals – elevated by 500% for the reason that takeover.
The 40-year-old basketball star stated he hopes the social media organisation takes hate speech of this sort severely, claiming “So many damn unfit people saying hate speech is free speech.”
I dont know Elon Musk and, tbh, I might care much less who owns twitter. But I’ll say that if that is true, I hope he and his individuals take this very severely as a result of that is scary AF. So many rattling unfit individuals saying hate speech is free speech. https://t.co/Sy0jvXIBnC
— LeBron James (@KingJames) October 29, 2022
Musk confirmed that the corporate can be forming a brand new content material moderation coverage which might additionally embrace decision-making on whether or not or to not enable banned accounts comparable to that of ex-US president Donald Trump again on the web site.
On Friday, he doubled down on these claims by reiterating Twitter’s conviction in the direction of content material moderation and refuting a number of the media studies about hate speech on Twitter. “We have actually seen hateful speech at times this week decline *below* our prior norms, contrary to what you may read in the press,” he stated.
Again, to be crystal clear, Twitter’s robust dedication to content material moderation stays completely unchanged.
In truth, we’ve really seen hateful speech at occasions this week decline *beneath* our prior norms, opposite to what you might learn within the press.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022
According to the Washington Post report, customers who have been attempting to check the boundaries of Twitter’s content material moderation following Musk’s takeover additionally flooded the applying with slurs in opposition to the LBTQ+ group and posted sexist feedback.