Twitter Fails to Remove Hate Speech By Blue-Check Users, Says Report From Center For Countering Digital Hate
Twitter can’t delete 99 percent of hate speech posted by Twitter user BlueNew research has found and may instead be promoting paid accounts that spread racist and homophobic behavior.
Researchers at the Center against Digital Hate (CCDH) flagged hate speech against the company in tweets from 100 Twitter Blue subscribers. Four days later, they say, 99 percent of the tweets are still there, and no accounts have been deleted.
The tweets, which include examples of neo-Nazis, anti-Semitism, racism and homophobia, violate Twitter’s own hate speech policy, the researchers said. . The tweets reported by CCDH included one post asserting “Hitler was right,” accompanied by a video montage of the dictator, and another saying LGBT activists need “IRON IN THEIR EATING”. . Preferably from #AFiringSquad.”
Twitter’s hateful content policy, most recently updated in April 2023, states: “You may not directly attack others based on race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, or ethnicity. , sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religion, age, disability, or terminal illness.” The tweets that CCDH found “clearly violate the platform’s policies,” the researchers wrote.
Twitter Blue, a paid verification service that allows anyone to get a “blue tick” badge next to their username on the platform for just $8 a month, was launched on… December 2022. Last month, Twitter’s then-CEO, Elon Musk, announced that these verified accounts would be prioritized as part of the Twitter algorithm, meaning users on platforms are more likely to see them.
According to Twitter’s own website, paying subscribers will receive “priority ratings in chats and searches”. The company promises paid users, “Tweets that you interact with will receive a small boost in their rankings. In addition, your answers will receive a boost that helps to rank them closer to the top of the page.
CCDH researchers said they found Twitter Blue users in their samples appeared to be “preferred” in the threads. “In an example of a string containing almost 100 tweets from
unverified users, the highest rated reply was from Twitter user Blue calling for violence against Migrants,” they wrote.
“What gives blue tick haters the confidence to speak their cynical words is that they know that Elon Musk simply doesn’t care about the civil and human rights of Blacks, Jews, and Muslims. and LGBTQ+ people, as long as he can earn his $8 a month,” said Imran Ahmed, chief executive officer of CCDH, in a statement to The Daily Beast, “Our society has been benefits from decades of progress on tolerance, but Elon Musk is tearing down those norms at an increasingly rapid pace, by allowing hate to flourish in the spaces he manages, all has the tacit approval of advertisers to remain on his platform.”
Previous research from CCDH found that under Elon Musk’s leadership over Twitter, tweets associating LGBT people with “grooming” has skyrocketed, growing 119% from the time Musk took over in October 2022 to March 2023. Research shows that 5 popular Twitter accounts are responsible for consistently linking LGBT to “grooming” generated $6.4 million per year in advertising revenue for Twitter.
The Daily Beast reached out to Twitter for comment and received only one poop emoji in response.
