Twitter faces legal challenge after failing to remove reported hate tweets

Twitter has faced repeated accusations of failing to act against online hate in recent years but these have intensified since Musk took over in October. The billionaire, who has described himself as a “free speech absolutist”, restored the accounts of thousands of users who had been banned from the platform, including white supremacists with a history of involvement in neo-Nazi propaganda.

At the same time, Musk dissolved Twitter’s independent Trust and Safety Council responsible for advising on tackling harmful activity on the platform and dramatically cut staff, reportedly including those working on content moderation. Others have resigned.

Analysts detected 325,739 English-language antisemitic tweets in the nine months from June 2022 to February 2023, with the weekly average number of antisemitic tweets increasing by 106% when comparing the period before and after Musk’s acquisition. The rate of creation of antisemitic accounts more than tripled in the period after Musk’s takeover.

#Guardian #Twitter #Twatter #HateSpeech #Antisemitism #HateAid