Hate speech on Twitter has radically increased since self-described “free speech absolutist” Elon Musk completed his $44 billion takeover of the platform, researchers say. Analysis suggests that instances of slurs against Black Americans have increased from an average of 1,282 times a day to 3,876 times day; slurs against gay men have jumped from an average of 2,506 times a day to 3,964 times a day; and antisemitic tweets about Jews or Judaism rose over 61 percent in the two weeks after Musk bought the company in October. “Elon Musk sent up the Bat Signal to every kind of racist, misogynist and homophobe that Twitter was open for business,” said Imran Ahmed, the chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, one of the organizations which conducted the research. “They have reacted accordingly.” News of the explosion in Twitter hate comes after the rapper formerly known as Kanye West was kicked off the platform for sharing an image of a swastika inside a Star of David.
