Article Date: February 13, 2025

Numerous studies have reported an increase in hate speech on X (formerly Twitter) in the months immediately following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform on October 27th, 2022; relatedly, despite Musk’s pledge to “defeat the spam bots,” a recent study reported no substantial change in the concentration of inauthentic accounts. However, it is not known whether any of these trends endured. We address this by examining material posted on X from the beginning of 2022 through June 2023, the period that includes Musk’s full tenure as CEO. We find that the increase in hate speech just before Musk bought X persisted until at least May of 2023, with the weekly rate of hate speech being approximately 50% higher than the months preceding his purchase, although this increase cannot be directly attributed to any policy at X. The increase is seen across multiple dimensions of hate, including racism, homophobia, and transphobia. Moreover, there is a doubling of hate post “likes,” indicating increased engagement with hate posts. In addition to measuring hate speech, we also measure the presence of inauthentic accounts on the platform; these accounts are often used in spam and malicious information campaigns. We find no reduction (and a possible increase) in activity by these users after Musk purchased X, which could point to further negative outcomes, such as the potential for scams, interference in elections, or harm to public health campaigns. Overall, the long-term increase in hate speech, and the prevalence of potentially inauthentic accounts, are concerning, as these factors can undermine safe and democratic online environments, and increase the risk of offline harms.

I don't really hear many talk about social media. But that's because I don't go on anything but this. I definitely don't talk about it in every day conversation either.

X is for nazis. Tell your friends.

Surprise surprise, when the CEO is a Nazi, Nazis think it's free eats!

Who'd have guessed that Musk's promise to "maximize free speech" was just a dogwhistle to allow the worst of society to say all the worst things with no pushback.

Oh yeah I guess everyone guessed that. None of these fucks cares about "free speech" they want "free speech without consequences specifically for me, but definitely consequences for the speech of people I don't like."

yall been posting some amazing water is wet science lately.

Turns out "free speech" on a platform controlled by one guy can only ever be a lie.

Somehow, the most reasonable account on Vichy Twitter is Grok because it’s hard to train an LLM using only data dumbasses wrote.

Sadly that's going to change. Musk is going to push an update that I suspect will turn Grok into a far-right disinformation parrot or become closer to that. See https://lemm.ee/post/67429541 and https://lemm.ee/post/67216433

He keeps trying. He seems to think that can be done by just putting his thumb on the system prompt, and then we end up with obvious nonsense like that South African white genocide preoccupation. It's fortunate the Musk isn't smart enough to figure out how to do it subtly.

You just now found out about this?

I'd leave it for good if there were non *chan alternatives with anywhere nearly as much hatred and drama

Then it's not a spike, it's a trend. Created by, mostly (hopefully) bots, there to move the overton window and normalise racism and hyper-regressive world views to divide the working class while the rich use us as Cannon fodder for their genocide against our fellow working class. Wankers.

In other news, grass is green.

Will someone tell the 60% bot userbase?

Its working, horrifyingly. In several communities lately ive seen moderators start to treat violent racism and antisemitism as personal beliefs that do not on their own necessitate banning. This in private progressive leaning communities too. Eugencist christian white nationalism is becoming a normal tolerated ideology to have.

Instagram is especially bad too. I see a lot of people talking about Twitter, but not enough about Instagram.

'Persistent spike' is up there with 'vehicle constantly stopping' as a nonsense phrase. And this from an educational institution?

Constantly means habitually. I can't even begin to formulate an apology for persistent spike though.

I'm seeing the more accurate 'vehicle frequently stopping' a lot more these days, so someone twigged to it.

So delighted (probably not the right word, feeling) that this was the top comment when I arrived.