A new report has found Twitter is witnessing a greater magnitude of misinformation following billionaire Elon Musk’s acquisition of the social media platform on October 27, saying “early signs show the platform is heading in the wrong direction under his leadership”.
The report, titled The Toxic Tales of the 2022 Midterms: Unraveling the Lies, Hate and Extremism Polluting the Public Square, was released by researchers at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, US, last week. The analysis involved tracking of narratives concerning issues such as civil war, election fraud and voting on Twitter from July through October. The researchers found these discussions reflected a commitment to combatting misinformation, hate speech, and toxic ideas before Elon Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform.
“Post-Musk takeover, the quality of the conversation has decayed, with more extremists and purveyors of hateful content testing the boundaries of what Twitter might allow,” the report said.
Posts containing misleading information, hate speech, and toxic reactions are now encountering less resistance on Twitter under Musk’s leadership. The conversation has “deteriorated quickly”, with extremists and malicious actors testing the platform’s boundaries with more harmful content, the report added.
Musk himself came under fire last month for sharing link to an article carrying false information. Although he took the tweet down shortly, experts raised concerns the billionaire’s sharing of an article from a widely discredited website with his more than 100 million followers already rang the alarm bells for the nature of content that was going to be posted on Twitter by bad actors, who would be emboldened by Musk’s frivolous handling of increasing information disorders on the platform.
Other reports highlight Twitter struggled with a strong wave of misinformation on Tuesday as Americans voted in the midterm elections. Thousands of misleading tweets about glitches in the voting machines and protocols circulated on the social media platform throughout the day, allowing conspiracy theorists and peddlers of misinformation a breeding ground for targeted falsehoods. Experts agreed that the quality of election content on Twitter on the polling day was a lot worse.
“There are definitely things we’re seeing today that would not have been there if this whole Elon Musk takeover had not happened,” said Bhaskar Chakravorti, dean of Global Business at the Fletcher School. “Just in the past 24 hours, there is more talk of election fraud rising up to the top.”
Musk, who calls himself a free speech absolutist and repeatedly expressed his misgivings about Twitter’s earlier content moderation rules, launched a crackdown on accounts engaging in impersonation after he was parodied by several verified users last week, including comedian Kathy Griffin, who was subsequently suspended from Twitter. Musk also received heavy criticism for axing Twitter’s human rights team shortly after his takeover. A number of prominent figures have since announced quitting the platform.
In the wake of mass sackings and high-profile resignations, Musk has announced there will be a number of changes (“dumb things” as he puts it) on Twitter in the coming months as the team tests new features.
