Will Twitter become a place without faith or law? The new Musk era and the news of the past few days have observers fearing a rise in online hatred on the social network. Latest fact, the results of a test on the moderation of racist content a few days before the 2022 World Cup.
Are there still employees at Twitter?
Researchers from the NGO Center for Countering Digital Hate reported 100 racist tweets days before the start of the World Cup. And out of that hundred hateful posts, only one was deleted, according to the Guardian which relays the analysis. The single deleted tweet actually contained no less than 16 racial slurs, according to the NGO.
This study intends to confirm the almost total absence of moderation on the social network. With the arrival of Elon Musk at the head of the company, more than half of the workforce was laid off. Even more worrying is the cancellation of 75% of the contracts with the social network’s subcontractors, in particular in charge of content moderation.
New moderation policy
The lack of moderation of hateful and racist remarks on the microblogging network could also be explained by the recent change in its rules, Elon Musk having announced drastic changes on Friday November 18, 2022. “Twitter’s new policy is freedom of speech”, said the new CEO of the firm. From now on, negative or hateful tweets will no longer be systematically deleted, but “demonetized to the maximum” and their reduced audience. “You won’t find the tweet unless you look for it specifically, which is no different from the rest of the internet”assures the multi-billionaire.
As an immediate consequence of this change in the rules, the suspended Twitter accounts of many controversial personalities have returned. The profiles of Kanye West, Kathie Griffin or even Donald Trump have become accessible again this weekend.
Before his takeover of Twitter, Elon Musk promised to “form a content moderation council with very diverse viewpoints”. On this occasion, he assured that no major decision “in matters of content or account reinstatement” would not be taken before the formation of the said group.