Twitter reported that in recent months it has limited the reach of more than 700 thousand tweets, because they were in breach of their policy on hateful conduct. Elon Musk’s company highlighted in a report, aimed at calming advertisers, that this was proof of its interest in making the social network a safe place.
The Rsportpublished on July 12, gives an account of the scope of his policy “Freedom of Speech Not Reach” —Freedom of expression, not scope—, which began to be applied in November of last year. In practice, instead of removing most toxic content, Twitter now limits its visibility with labels on top of posts.
The announcement of this new rule was accompanied by the reinstatement of famous users who had been suspended for promoting hate speech. Among them, Andrew Tate, a far-right misogynist influencer, arrested on suspicion of human trafficking. Or Kanye West, whose account was closed again just two weeks later after he praised Hitler.
Twitter ensures that hate messages represent a “small minority”, contrary to what different organizations have shown in recent months. The company ensures that the measures it applies to enforce its content standards are “proportionately appropriate.”
The allegations of “toxic Twitter” in the Musk era
Twitter assured in its report that it was not so toxic: it said that 99.99% of its impressions correspond to “healthy content”. But, according to several independent investigations, the company has favored the proliferation of toxic discourse on the social networkby action or omission.
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue —dedicated to investigating disinformation and hate campaigns around the world— has been warning how the misogynistic content is climbing on the platform. A study revealed in early March that misogynistic Twitter accounts have grown 69% since Musk’s arrival.
The same thing happens with him antisemitic content: posts of this type doubled in the Musk era. A German human rights organization maintains legal action in progress after the company decided not to remove denialist and extremist messages.
An investigation of The Washington Post demonstrated that Twitter was empowering hate speech in its new “For You” section. This is a side effect caused by the design of its algorithm which, in theory, shows users more tweets that correspond to their particular interests. Thus, users who already followed extremist profiles, they began to see more racist and discriminatory posts.
Twitter has also been relaxing the protection for LGBTI+ users. Last April, he La removed a rule that prohibited the deadnaming, which is how the use of the name that a transgender person had before their transition is known in English. GLAAD, one of the largest LGBTI+ organizations in the United States, revealed in a report in June that Twitter was the most insecure platform for people in this community.
Twitter wants to calm down advertisers and regulators
Advertisers are not happy with this more toxic version of Twitter. In addition, there is a campaign called #StopToxicTwitterdriven by more than 60 non-governmental organizations, which has been asking Twitter’s top customers since last year to demand a safe and hate-free platform for their brands.
“They are trying to destroy free speech in America,” Musk complained in November. But even if the tycoon doesn’t like it, income is falling. Twitter ad sales fell 59% in April, compared to the same period last year.
In the report published yesterday, Twitter assured its advertisers that the reach limitation of 700,000 tweets prevented ads from appearing alongside this content. He explained that labels on infringing content reduce viewing by 81% and that more than a third of its authors proactively choose to remove the tweet after this notification. In addition, he assured that only 4% of affected users decide to appeal the restriction.
The company said that it will extend the application of this action to those who also fail to comply with the policies on abusive behavior and violent speech. “We will continue to remove the most serious violations of our rules, such as illegal content, and we will suspend bad actors from our platform,” he remarked.
This decision comes a month after the new CEO of Twitter, Linda Yaccarino, took office, focused on regaining the trust of advertisers. Also, after the company was audited in June by officials of the European Union. For months, Europe has been warning the social network that it has to adapt to the provisions of the Digital Services Law.