Slur hashtags continue to occupy the trending list of twitter even on the third day of the twitter takeover by Elon Musk. According to the Senior Director of Twitter’s Security and Integrity department, all these downgrading are results of planned hate campaigns against the company. He went on to put out some numbers to substantiate his claim.
“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, Sr. Director of Security and Integrity, Twitter
On 27th October, the same day the seven month long Twitter takeover discussions were concluded, the new owner tweeted addressing the advertisers. It was an open letter to advertisers and other social media marketing posted in three images. More than a takeover note, it was an explanation of how much Twitter remains the same or almost the same. The letter started by thrashing the narrative of the disastrous change the Twitter takeover is going to bring. The negative campaign went so far that even the Washington Post’s journalist Taylor Lorenz went on to make an ‘open the gates to hell’ remarks about Musk’s Twitter takeover. Her news piece was indeed an extreme criticism of the takeover citing the racist tweets that appeared in the platform. Despite the growing hate campaigns, digital marketing companies find solace in the mentioned letter posted prior to all chaos.
There were further clarification posts from the company including the one from Musk itself to manage the slur campaigns. After the second day after twitter takeover Elon Musk was seen tweeting that the content moderation policy of twitter remains unchanged. This was an attempt to soothe the tensed users. However, the hate tweets continue to rush in but at a slower pace.
Even as the negative campaigns erupt, Elon Musk talks for the free speech he envisions through an ‘ideal social media platform’. He also ensures ‘the laws of land’ will be followed and the free speech will be without resorting violence. His aspiration of twitter being the most respected advertising was also shared in the letter.
