Twitter should “just burn,” says one researcher. In Elon Musk’s blue-check anarchy, experts say it already is
Shortly after acquiring Twitter, Elon Musk posted, “The bird is freed.” But what did that mean in practice? The platform saw nearly a fivefold increase in the use of the n-word within 12 hours after the shift of ownership. The most engaged tweets were overtly antisemitic. The site was flooded with anonymous trolls spewing racist slurs and Nazi memes.
But, the surge in overt racism and bigotry wasn’t the only sign of how drastically, and how rapidly, Twitter changed under Musk’s ownership.
Anti-LGBTQ accounts like Libs of TikTok and Gays Against Groomers had been suspended from Twitter several times for hateful conduct and spreading anti-LGBTQ rhetoric targeting Pride events and individuals. Both accounts have now been reinstated and carry the blue checkmark.
White supremacists Jason Kessler and Richard Spencer, who had their verifications revoked some time ago, have gotten them back under Musk. Kessler was a principal organizer of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, and Spencer for a time was the most prominent neo-Nazi and overt white supremacist in America. (At least until the rise of Nick Fuentes.)
With previously suspended accounts returning to Twitter and continuing to spread conspiracy theories online, more ordinary users will inevitably encounter content that otherwise only existed on fringe platforms like 4chan and 8chan, said Gianluca Stringhini, assistant professor at Boston University, who studies cybersecurity and online safety.