Musk has alsbeen reinstating previously banned Twitter accounts, including these anti-LGBTQ accounts (Picture: AP)
Twitter was never the happiest place on earth but under its new owner Elon Musk, it has become a hotbed of anti-LGBTQ hate speech.
A new report from the American media watchdog, Media Matters and Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) shows that since Elon Musk took over as CEO, anti-LGBTQ rhetoric has increased on the platform.
Despite Musk’s claims that hate speech impressions have reduced, the report found that retweets of right-wing figures’ tweets that included the anti-LGBTQ ‘groomer’ slur increased substantially, as did mentions of right-wing figures in tweets containing the slur.
While the term ‘groomer’ refers to adults who seek to form connections with minors in order to sexually abuse them, certain right-wing influencers use the term as a slur to make unfounded, hateful accusations against LGBTQ people.
The researchers looked at nine popular right-wing accounts to chart their use of the anti-LGBTQ slur ‘groomer’.
Under Elon Musk, Twitter has become a hotbed for anti-LGBTQ hate speech (Picture: Reuters)
Overall, these accounts saw a 1,200% uptick in tweets or retweets that used the slur, an increase of 3,600 instances to 48,000.
Other right-wing accounts also saw substantial increases of mentions in tweets containing the slur. For example, Libs of TikTok saw more than a 600% increase in its mentions, going from nearly 2,000 to nearly 14,000, while Rep. Mayra Flores (R-TX) saw a nearly 6,000% increase, going from nearly 70 mentions to over 4,000.
In July, before Musk had taken ownership of the social media platform, the term ‘groomer’ was considered a violation of Twitter’s hateful conduct policy when used in the context of discussion of gender identity.
Anti-LGBTQ figure James Lindsay, repeatedly violated this policy, using the slur to harass LGBTQ people. Similarly, right-wing satire site Babylon Bee was suspended in March after repeatedly misgendering US Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine.
These accounts have made a comeback since Musk started reinstating previously banned Twitter accounts, including anti-LGBTQ accounts.
A new report shows that since Elon Musk took over as CEO, anti-LGBTQ rhetoric has increased on the platform (Picture: Media Matters)
According to the report, since being reinstated, Lindsay earned over 1,700 retweets on his posts perpetuating the anti-LGBTQ ‘groomer’ slur, and has been mentioned in over 4,700 tweets mentioning the slur.
The Babylon Bee account has similarly gained nearly 1,600 retweets on its ‘groomer’-related posts and mentioned in over 1,700 related posts.
The figures are hardly surprising as Musk himself has openly engaged in anti-LGBTQ dialogue on Twitter over the weekend.
‘My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,’ tweeted Musk, mocking both trans people and America’s top public health official.
‘Forcing your pronouns upon others when they didn’t ask, and implicitly ostracizing those who don’t, is neither good nor kind to anyone,’ tweeted Musk.
The Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) found that, since Musk took over the social media platform at the end of October, the number of tweets containing racist and other hateful terms has risen substantially.
According to a CCDH study, Twitter failed to remove racist tweets targeted at World Cup stars.
Most recently, the social media platform abruptly dissolved its trust and safety council.
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Tweets that included the anti-LGBTQ ‘groomer’ slur increased substantially.
