Published , by Morgan Shaver
Published , by Morgan Shaver
Elon Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter this week and it seems like some may be using the recent transition of ownership to test the waters of what will and won’t be allowed on the platform moving forward. More specifically, the ADL Center on Extremism has reported a “coordinated effort to spread antisemitic content on Twitter” following Musk’s takeover of the company.
According to the ADL, “over 1,200 tweets and retweets” have been spotted spreading antisemetic content over the past 24 hours. Additionally, the ADL reports that an anonymous post on 4chan was discovered sharing instructions to disseminate antisemitic content on Twitter due to the Musk acquisition.
The ADL goes on to note that the “strategic spread of hateful content on Twitter” warrants concern in regards to how “extremists view potential changes to Twitter’s content rules.” The ADL doesn’t mention artist Kanye West (Ye) by name, but also remarks on how the increase in antisemitic content on Twitter follows weeks of similar content and discourse “spread by public figures.”
Yesterday, the ADL shared an official statement on its website addressing some of its views and concerns regarding Musk’s takeover of Twitter as well. Speaking on the matter, ADL CEO and National Director, Jonathan A. Greenblatt, stated:
Moving forward, the ADL shared a list of five things it plans to monitor in the coming days (as seen above), though at the time of this writing the link redirecting to that post isn’t working. As such, we recommend keeping an eye on ADL’s Twitter account and website in the coming weeks. We will also continue to cover the situation as it develops.
For more Twitter news, be sure to read through some of our previous coverage including Elon Musk’s plans to establish a Twitter content moderation council, and how Parag Agrawal, Ned Segal, and Vijaya Gadde were fired following Musk’s Twitter takeover.