TW: Discussions of last week’s shooting and anti-LGBTQ violence
The far-right is at war with a new group of people they’ve decided to target: trans and gender non-conforming people, including drag queens. This hate has reached a fever pitch. Last Saturday, a gunman opened fire in a gay bar during a drag show, killing 5 and injuring others until unarmed patrons were able to subdue them. The shooting is being investigated as a hate crime, motivated by anti-trans, anti-drag, and general anti-LGBTQ hate. The shooter’s lawyer has stated that the shooter is non-binary, though friends, family, and neighbors knew nothing of this. Some have suggested the lawyer is just trying to help his client beat hate crime charges, but, regardless, in this post I’ll refer to the shooter with they/them pronouns.
Anti-trans posts on Twitter were becoming horrible before Musk took over. The worst examples of transphobia, direct deadnaming and targeted attacks against people like Dr. Rachel Levine and Elliot Page lead to bans after days of deliberation from Twitter. However, more subtle transphobia, such as questioning the validity of trans people and claiming gender non-conforming people are dangers to children, has been allowed. It’s this hate that lead to targeted bomb threats on a children’s hospital, threatening incursions of drag story time at libraries, and, likely, a shooting on Saturday.
With Musk in charge, hate speech against trans people not only became allowed, but rewarded. Musk has engaged with some of the most vile spreaders of this hate, including an account that has been accused of stochastic terrorism, that is, encouraging random acts of violence and terrorism against particular groups. Musk hopped into replies to accounts like Libs of TikTok, an account at the center of children’s hospital vilification. He’s unbanned accounts like Jordan Peterson, who, besides previous misogynistic comments, went on a rant about Elliot Page, and Babylon Bee, a website seemingly obsessed with making the same joke about trans people.
Finally, Musk also unbanned Trump, who was banned for encouraging the terror attack at the Capitol.
The website has exited “toxic” territory, and is entering the same dangerous territory Parler found itself in prior to the January 6th coup attempt in 2021. At this rate, it won’t be long before Twitter is also directly implicated in an act of terror.
Some argue it has already.
Musk Turns on Previous Comments
Previously, Elon Musk tried to calm the fears of advertisers, stating that he’d set up a moderation council made of people with “widely diverse viewpoints,” to ensure Twitter remains safe and fair. He has already broken that promise, blaming “activist groups.” There have been groups asking advertisers to drop the platform, but the truth is, brands don’t want their company associated with a site where the N-word trends, people can encourage acts of terrorism, or their tweet could show up next to someone pushing Twitter to unban terrorist groups like ISIS. The verification fiasco left companies losing billions in value from fake tweets. There’s no brand safety left on Twitter. It’s the same reason you don’t see Pepsi putting ads on Parler, Truth Social, or more obscure alt-right websites. Pepsi doesn’t want you associating their cola with far-right terrorism, plain and simple.
Do you think Nintendo was happy about this?
Musk would have a far more successful company on his hands if he listened to people who have kept Twitter afloat for years, but he’s not about to start doing that now. Musk’s sitting in a sinking life raft and thought, “Maybe it needs more holes” before shooting it three more times. The return of people banned for inspiring violence on the platform won’t win back any users or advertisers. Inspiring violence has never helped a platform prosper, and scares away anyone not wishing to participate in violence.
Musk’s strategy is to turn Twitter into Parler, Gab, or Truth Social. That is to say, a failure.
More Hate, Just Hidden
https://twitter.com/dellcam/status/1593713303225651200?s=20&t=QHlgB68vpfcCkw6DaekVqw
Elon Musk tried to celebrate lower hate speech on Twitter earlier this week. What he failed to mention was that Twitter no longer considers anti-trans hate speech to be hate speech.
Ironically, Musk doesn’t expose how he arrived at the conclusion that “hate speech is lower.” Ironic because, before buying Twitter, he complained about a lack of transparency in Twitter’s reporting. Still, leaks within the company have stated Musk has been looking to remove this rule completely, and it is effectively gone already. That includes estimations of hate speech. On top of that, he’s not including retweets or other forms of impressions. As transgender activist Erin Reed pointed out, one hateful tweet alone will generate tens of thousands of impressions. Musk’s numbers are obviously fake, but his intentions are clear. Musk wants the illusion of a safer Twitter to bring back advertisers.
Musk’s hand waving won’t work. These brands collect their own metrics, and can see Twitter’s become more hate-filled and unsafe. Perhaps Musk hopes he can bring back the people who quit Twitter who won’t see hate personally. The people who wanted nothing to do with a hate speech platform and quit, but likely won’t see harassment and hate speech first-hand, due to their demographics. He’s hoping to lure back the “allies,” and, from there, change Twitter’s brand image to one that’s advertiser-friendly, despite what’s actually on the network.
The Damage Done and Yet to Come
“On the trans day of remembrance after 5 LGBTQ people were murdered in Colorado, Twitter reinstated several anti-LGBTQ accounts while giving the green light to vicious anti LGBTQ rhetoric such as the groomer libel.”
– Alejandra Caraballo, clinical instructor at the cyberlaw clinic at Harvard Law School
Musk claims that he’s not going to ban users, just limit their reach. Reduce the spread of hateful content, which, seemingly, doesn’t include hate directed at transgender people anymore. But limiting algorithmic discovery isn’t enough. It doesn’t change the fact that hateful Twitter users already have millions of followers who will interact and share that hateful content. Twitter may not give them the biggest microphone, but they won’t stop anyone else from providing microphones. Without strict moderation, including permanent bans, hate speech will continue to spread and overtake the platform. From Musk’s changed rules to the people he has unbanned, it’s hard to not see that as his goal. Allow hate speech to flourish but change Twitter’s brand image to appear safe. He’s trying to have his hate and finance it too. It could cost others their lives.
Twitter fanned the flames and hate of GamerGate. It spread Russian disinformation prior to the 2016 election. They learned their lessons and increased moderation, making it a safer place for online discussion. Musk hasn’t just undone all of that work, he’s invited all of its past mistakes back. He fired the entire team dedicated to preventing foreign influence in elections. He invited back Trump, banned for pushing a coup attempt. He’s verified hate and invited it back in. The impact of Musk’s decisions will grow far beyond the targets he considers acceptable. How long will it take Musk to learn the lessons Twitter learned long ago? So far, he’s told us one thing for certain: he is not a quick learner.
Sources:
- Dell Cameron, Gizmodo
- Mitchell Clark, The Verge
- Erin Reed, Substack
- Christopher Wiggins, Advocate
- Cat Zakrzewski, Faiz Siddiqui, and Joseph Menn, The Washington Post