Hate is doing well on Twitter. Since Elon Musk took control of the blue bird social network, many banned accounts have been able to return, including Donald Trump’s. With the return of these Internet users, racist and homophobic messages increase significantly, according to a study.
In detail, it is estimated that homophobic insults increase by 40%, racist insults by 200% and anti-Semitic insults by 60%, according to the Center to Counter Digital Hate (Digital Hate Analysis Center).
A total of 12,000 deleted accounts have returned to tweeting since the billionaire took over the social network. 40,000 more are expected to join them in the coming weeks.
returning white supremacists
Among the Twitter accounts that are making a comeback is, for example, that of Andrew Anglin, who was banned from the platform in 2013. An American neo-Nazi, he founded a white supremacist and anti-Jewish website.
Back on the social network, on Friday he made an announcement for 2024. “I have always said that I support Trump, (…) but now that Kanye West is here, there is finally someone else. It is the best thing to do to support the guy who chooses Christianity and who attacks the Jews”, he assumes without complexes in an interview with a youtuber.
The American rapper has spoken enthusiastically about Adolf Hitler and the Nazis on several occasions in recent months. Kanye West’s Twitter account was banned last Friday.
Many anti-vaccine accounts reinstated
Another type of account that is resurfacing: anti-vaccination. This is particularly the case with Marjorie Taylor Greene. Elected an American Republican, she compared wearing a mask to the Holocaust, encouraged people not to get vaccinated, and spread a lot of false information about Covid.
One of the accounts that shared the most false information about Covid, Project Veritas, has also been reinstated on the platform. This medium with a million subscribers shares conspiracy videos that point in particular to the Pfizer laboratory, the supposed danger of the anti-Covid vaccine or the ineffectiveness of the mask.
The day of his return to Twitter, the online medium did not hesitate to publish a video mixing thanks and warning. “Project Veritas is back on Twitter after 647 days of unjustified banishment. Elon Musk allowed us to come back here (…), we came back for revenge”, warns its founder James O’Keefe.
The new owner of the social network does not intend to stay there. Elon Musk asked internet users to tell him which banned accounts could be reinstated.
Source: BFM TV
