Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover: Here’s what the company said after increase in racial tweets – Times of India

Elon Musk seems to have some serious things to deal with soon after taking over the charge of the microblogging platform. Multiple reports suggest that post closure of the $44 billion deal, an increase in tweets that include slurs and other derogatory terms has been noticed. The tweets contained racial slurs used against people of colour. Twitter has now come out with an explanation saying that this increase is due to a “trolling campaign” involving “inauthentic” accounts.
500% increase in racial tweets on Twitter
As per a report by the Network Contagion Research Institute, the use of the N-word “has increased nearly 500 percent from the previous average.” This is about 12 hours after Musk’s Twitter acquisition.
“Evidence suggests that bad actors are trying to test the limits on Twitter. Several posts on 4chan [website] encourage users to amplify derogatory slurs. For example, over the last 12 hours, the use of the N-word has increased nearly 500% from the previous average,” the research institute said in a tweet.
Twitter’s response to increase in racial tweets
Responding to the increase in N-word tweets, Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of safety and integrity, posted a thread of tweets accepting the rise of “slurs and other derogatory terms” on Twitter as well as providing more insight into it.
“Over the last 48 hours, we’ve seen a small number of accounts post a ton of Tweets that include slurs and other derogatory terms. To give you a sense of scale: More than 50,000 Tweets repeatedly using a particular slur came from just 300 accounts,” Roth said.
He also announced that the company is taking steps in this regard. “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,” he added.

He emphasised that “Twitter’s policies haven’t changed” and that hateful conduct has no place here. “Our Rules prohibit Hateful Conduct. This includes targeting people with dehumanising content and slurs. This DOESN’T mean we have a list of words that are always banned. Context matters. For example, our policies are written to protect reclaimed speech,” Roth noted.
Twitter’s new owner and SpaceX CEO Musk also shared the same viewpoint in his letter addressing advertisers and in a tweet saying “Twitter’s content moderation policies” have not changed. Twitter will, however, get a “content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints” and there won’t be major content decisions or account reinstatements before that council convenes.