Trolls flood Twitter with slurs to test 'free speech' after Musk takeover
The social media giant's head of safety says the platform's rules "haven't changed" after the takeover by self-declared "free speech absolutist" Elon Musk.
Elon Musk's talk of slimming Twitter's staff and letting people post anything allowed by law is expected to clash with the reality of fending off hackers, trolls, police and regulators, experts say.
An organised trolling campaign tweeting slurs tens of thousands of times tested Twitter's moderation policies after the platform was taken over by billionaire Elon Musk, its safety chief said has said, adding that the rules "haven't changed".
Hours after the takeover by self-declared "free speech absolutist" Musk late on Thursday, far-right voices celebrated what they said was their newly-reclaimed right to free speech with posts questioning racial slurs and other derogatory terms.
Let’s talk for a minute about slurs, hateful conduct, and trolling campaigns.
— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) October 30, 2022
Bottom line up front: Twitter’s policies haven’t changed. Hateful conduct has no place here. And we’re taking steps to put a stop to an organized effort to make people think we have.
But "Twitter's policies haven't changed. Hateful conduct has no place here. And we're taking steps to put a stop to an organized effort to make people think we have," tweeted the platform's chief of safety and integrity, Yoel Roth on Sunday.
Roth said that 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".
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.
— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) October 30, 2022
"To give you a sense of scale: More than 50,000 Tweets repeatedly using a particular slur came from just 300 accounts," he continued.
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"Nearly all" of the accounts are inauthentic, he said.
"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."
Trepidation about future change
Roth also retweeted a Musk post in which the Tesla chief reiterated that "we have not yet made any changes to Twitter's content moderation policies."
It is the "yet" that is making many of the platform's users nervous about the direction in which Musk wants to take Twitter, one of the leading platforms for global discourse and diplomacy.
To be super clear, we have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies https://t.co/k4guTsXOIu
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 29, 2022
Musk has vowed to dial back content moderation, relying more on computer algorithms than human monitors. Conservatives say past moderation has unfairly targeted their views.
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But detractors warn that without standards, the world's "digital town square" is at risk of becoming a free-for-all of misinformation, with possibly perilous consequences for democracy and public health.
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