Misogynistic Twitter accounts have grown 69% since Elon Musk announced he was buying the company. The data results from A study of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue —dedicated to investigating disinformation and hate campaigns around the world—, which ensures that in recent months tens of thousands of new users were created who immediately began to follow well-known accounts that spread abusive content against women.
The institute used as a sample the data of 7 million followers of 132 misogynistic profiles. There were four major spikes in the creation of these new followers that are also related to key events. The first two were andl April 6 and October 28, which coincide with the time Musk announced he would buy Twitter and when the deal was completed. While the other two were the November 19 and December 30the day Andrew Tate’s Twitter account was reinstated and the date he was arrested.
Andrew Tate is a far-right misogynist influencer, arrested on suspicion of human trafficking. Twitter suspended Tate’s account in 2017, but thanks to Musk it was back online. Profiles similar to yours were recorded during the aforementioned peaks between 22 thousand and 29 thousand new followers per day. They were all newly created accounts.
Misogynistic Twitter accounts and out-of-control trolls
The research argues that the management of Musk has created an “permissive environment” for the growth of these abusive networks. Musk read the study and scoffed. “Sorry for turning Twitter from a nutritious haven to a place that has…trolls,” he wrote online on Monday.
While Musk dismisses the growth of misogynistic accounts on Twitter, workers are distraught. A group of current and former employees of the company told the BBC that features intended to protect users from trolling and harassment are proving difficult to sustain. Since Musk came along, at least half of Twitter’s workforce has been laid off or has quit.
The BBC He mentions as an example the case of Lisa Jennings Young, former director of content design at Twitter. She and her team were responsible for designing various tools to protect users from abuse, such as the self-blocking feature called “Safe Mode,” which the social network tested in various regions. At the end of October they laid off the entire Jennings team. She, consequently, he resigned in November.
“A totally new person, with no experience, is doing what 20+ people used to do,” said an engineer responsible for the Twitter computer code who still works at the company. “That leaves room for a lot more risk, a lot more chance for things to go wrong,” he said on condition of anonymity.
The European Union asks Twitter to hire more staff to moderate the network
The complaint about the growth of misogynistic accounts on Twitter comes just with a request for more control by the authorities. The European Union asked Elon Musk to hire more human moderators and fact-checkers to review the posts on Twitter, reported yesterday the Financial Times, who has access to conversations between company executives and regulators in Brussels.
There are fears that the mass layoffs on Twitter make it difficult to comply with the Digital Services Law. The legislation, which will enter into force in early 2024, requires Internet platforms to implement specific measures against illegal content.
The relaxation of some protection measures, which allowed, for example, the reinstatement of suspended accounts, has been defended by Musk as actions in favor of freedom of expression. Twitter, meanwhile, continues to bet heavily on automation to moderate content. At the same time that it has eliminated several manual verification processes, according to a report from Reuters published at the end of last year.
