Musk resigns as Twitter CEO, Linda Yaccarino takes over

[Austria-Bohemia-Hungary]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/busin ... 235273922/
apparently photoshopping the swastika together with the Star of David is too much for Elon "Free Speech" Musk

[The Black Forrest]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/elon-musk-kanye-west-twitter-suspended-swastika-1235273922/
apparently photoshopping the swastika together with the Star of David is too much for Elon "Free Speech" Musk

I am shocked…..well not really.

He probably ordered that after a few people said You know…..

[Mountains and Volcanoes]

[A]pparently photoshopping the swastika together with the Star of David is too much for Elon "[(Absolute)] Free Speech" Musk[!]

He went Full “Gas The Kikes“ Mode... completing his Nazi Arc. What time to live...

[Hurdergaryp]

[Reploid Productions]

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Those attorneys must be insanely certain of their position to have that tone in a legal correspondence. I mean... they're probably right about how it will play out if he doesn't pony up what he promised Twitter employees, but daaaaamn.

Will he yield and pay up without a fight? Or has he fallen so hard for his own hype that he'll stack another disastrous mistake atop his pile of fuckups regarding Twitter? Get your popcorn ready!

[Fractalnavel]

(Image)
(Image)
(Image)

Those attorneys must be insanely certain of their position to have that tone in a legal correspondence. I mean... they're probably right about how it will play out if he doesn't pony up what he promised Twitter employees, but daaaaamn.

Will he yield and pay up without a fight? Or has he fallen so hard for his own hype that he'll stack another disastrous mistake atop his pile of fuckups regarding Twitter? Get your popcorn ready!

Sooo much popcorn. Is popcorn poisoning a thing?

[Spirit of Hope]

Twitter advertising revenue 80% bellow expectation, with a drop from 3,980 advertisers to 2,315.

The World Cup has historically been a boon for Twitter, bringing in record traffic and an influx of advertising dollars.

But this time, when the global soccer tournament started on Nov. 20, Twitter’s U.S. ad revenue was running at 80 percent below internal expectations for that week, three people with knowledge of the figures said.

In tandem, Twitter was rapidly cutting its revenue projections. The company previously forecast that it would generate $1.4 billion in the last three months of the year, down from $1.6 billion a year ago because of the global economic downturn. But as Twitter kept missing its weekly advertising targets, that number slid to $1.3 billion, then to $1.1 billion, two people said.

Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, has warned repeatedly that his social media company faces dire financial straits. Interviews with seven former employees and internal documents seen by The New York Times paint a fuller picture of Twitter’s financial woes.

Many of the company’s troubles can be traced to Mr. Musk’s takeover in late October. Since then, advertisers — which provide 90 percent of Twitter’s revenue — have paused some spending on the platform, citing concerns about how Mr. Musk might change the service. The billionaire, a self-described “free speech absolutist,” has reinstated banned accounts and dropped at least one misinformation policy. Hate speech on Twitter has soared in recent weeks, researchers found.

At the same time, Mr. Musk has alternated between wooing advertisers and blasting them. Last month, he threatened a “thermonuclear name & shame” of brands that halted their spending on Twitter. This week, he briefly picked a fight with Apple, which was on track to spend more than $180 million on Twitter ads this year, three people said.

Twitter’s advertising business has become so fraught that it has started offering brands additional incentives. Some brands are committing only to promotions for events, like the Super Bowl, with heavy discounts or clauses that allow them to back out for any reason, according to internal documents and three people familiar with the efforts. Automakers are among the most concerned advertisers, with General Motors raising questions about whether Twitter’s data would be shared with Mr. Musk’s car company, Tesla, three people said.

“There hasn’t been any level of trust from us with Twitter, especially with the whiplash we’ve experienced over the last four weeks,” said Ellie Bamford, the head of global media at R/GA, a creative agency. Last month, IPG, R/GA’s parent and one of the world’s largest advertising companies, recommended that its clients pause their advertising on Twitter.

Mr. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.

Even before he completed his deal for Twitter, advertisers began expressing their doubts. Twitter had 3,980 advertisers in May, the month after Mr. Musk agreed to buy the company, according to MediaRadar, an advertising intelligence company. By October, it had 2,315 advertisers, the fewest of any month until that point.

Advertisers’ confidence in Twitter was shaken further when its sales and advertising team turned over after Mr. Musk took charge. Leslie Berland and J.P. Maheu, who were responsible for maintaining key relationships with some top brands, left last month. Robin Wheeler, a U.S. ad executive who briefly resigned before staying on, was then fired after Mr. Musk asked her to cut employees from the sales team and she refused, two people said.

Dara Nasr, who oversaw Twitter’s European ad operations, also left last month. The company’s ad sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa were down more than 50 percent the week of Nov. 21 from the prior week, two people familiar with the numbers said. The Platformer newsletter previously reported Twitter’s figures for the region.

Mr. Musk also made good on his threat to call out advertisers that paused their spending. On Monday, he posted several barbed tweets about Apple and its chief executive, Tim Cook, noting that the iPhone maker had pulled back its advertising on Twitter. Apple, which does not advertise on Instagram or Facebook, had committed more than $150 million on Twitter ads in 2022 and had exceeded that with more than $180 million in advertising spending, three people said.

But Apple temporarily paused that after a shooting left five people dead at an L.G.B.T.Q. nightclub in Colorado Springs on Nov. 19, two people said. Major brands tend to dial back advertising when there are shootings or disasters so their promotions do not appear next to news or tweets about the tragedies.

Probably in part because hate speech is on the rise and Twitters response rate is decreasing.

Before Elon Musk bought Twitter, slurs against Black Americans showed up on the social media service an average of 1,282 times a day. After the billionaire became Twitter’s owner, they jumped to 3,876 times a day.

Slurs against gay men appeared on Twitter 2,506 times a day on average before Mr. Musk took over. Afterward, their use rose to 3,964 times a day.

And antisemitic posts referring to Jews or Judaism soared more than 61 percent in the two weeks after Mr. Musk acquired the site.

These findings — from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the Anti-Defamation League and other groups that study online platforms — provide the most comprehensive picture to date of how conversations on Twitter have changed since Mr. Musk completed his $44 billion deal for the company in late October. While the numbers are relatively small, researchers said the increases were atypically high.

The shift in speech is just the tip of a set of changes on the service under Mr. Musk. Accounts that Twitter used to regularly remove — such as those that identify as part of the Islamic State, which were banned after the U.S. government classified ISIS as a terror group — have come roaring back. Accounts associated with QAnon, a vast far-right conspiracy theory, have paid for and received verified status on Twitter, giving them a sheen of legitimacy.

These changes are alarming, researchers said, adding that they had never seen such a sharp increase in hate speech, problematic content and formerly banned accounts in such a short period on a mainstream social media platform.

“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. “They have reacted accordingly.”

Mr. Musk, who did not respond to a request for comment, has been vocal about being a “free speech absolutist” who believes in unfettered discussions online. He has moved swiftly to overhaul Twitter’s practices, allowing former President Donald J. Trump — who was barred for tweets that could incite violence — to return. Last week, Mr. Musk proposed a widespread amnesty for accounts that Twitter’s previous leadership had suspended. And on Tuesday, he ended enforcement of a policy against Covid misinformation.

But Mr. Musk has denied claims that hate speech has increased on Twitter under his watch. Last month, he tweeted a downward-trending graph that he said showed that “hate speech impressions” had dropped by a third since he took over. He did not provide underlying numbers or details of how he was measuring hate speech.

On Thursday, Mr. Musk said the account of Kanye West, which was restricted for a spell in October because of an antisemitic tweet, would be suspended indefinitely after the rapper, known as Ye, tweeted an image of a swastika inside the Star of David. On Friday, Mr. Musk said Twitter would publish “hate speech impressions” every week and agreed with a tweet that said hate speech spiked last week because of Ye’s antisemitic posts.

Changes in Twitter’s content not only have societal implications but also affect the company’s bottom line. Advertisers, which provide about 90 percent of Twitter’s revenue, have reduced their spending on the platform as they wait to see how it will fare under Mr. Musk. Some have said they are concerned that the quality of discussions on the platform will suffer.

On Wednesday, Twitter sought to reassure advertisers about its commitment to online safety. “Brand safety is only possible when human safety is the top priority,” the company wrote in a blog post. “All of this remains true today.”

The appeal to advertisers coincided with a meeting between Mr. Musk and Thierry Breton, the digital chief of the European Union, in which they discussed content moderation and regulation, according to an E.U. spokesman. Mr. Breton has pressed Mr. Musk to comply with the Digital Services Act, a European law that requires social platforms to reduce online harm or face fines and other penalties.

Mr. Breton plans to visit Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters early next year to perform a “stress test” of its ability to moderate content and combat disinformation, the spokesman said.

On Twitter itself, researchers said the increase in hate speech, antisemitic posts and other troubling content had begun before Mr. Musk loosened the service’s content rules. That suggested that a further surge could be coming, they said.

If that happens, it’s unclear whether Mr. Musk will have policies in place to deal with problematic speech or, even if he does, whether Twitter has the employees to keep up with moderation. Mr. Musk laid off, fired or accepted the resignations of more than half the company’s staff last month, including those who worked to remove harassment, foreign interference and disinformation from the service. Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of trust of safety, was among those who quit.

The Anti-Defamation League, which files regular reports of antisemitic tweets to Twitter and keeps track of which posts are removed, said the company had gone from taking action on 60 percent of the tweets it reported to only 30 percent.

“We have advised Musk that Twitter should not just keep the policies it has had in place for years, it should dedicate resources to those policies,” said Yael Eisenstat, a vice president at the Anti-Defamation League, who met with Mr. Musk last month. She said he did not appear interested in taking the advice of civil rights groups and other organizations.

“His actions to date show that he is not committed to a transparent process where he incorporates the best practices we have learned from civil society groups,” Ms. Eisenstat said. “Instead he has emboldened racists, homophobes and antisemites.”

The lack of action extends to new accounts affiliated with terror groups and others that Twitter previously banned. In the first 12 days after Mr. Musk assumed control, 450 accounts associated with ISIS were created, up 69 percent from the previous 12 days, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank that studies online platforms.

Other social media companies are also increasingly concerned about how content is being moderated on Twitter.

When Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, found accounts associated with Russian and Chinese state-backed influence campaigns on its platforms last month, it tried to alert Twitter, said two members of Meta’s security team, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The two companies often communicated on these issues, since foreign influence campaigns typically linked fake accounts on Facebook to Twitter.

But this time was different. The emails to their counterparts at Twitter bounced or went unanswered, the Meta employees said, in a sign that those workers may have been fired.

[New-Minneapolis]

Twitter advertising revenue 80% bellow expectation, with a drop from 3,980 advertisers to 2,315.

The World Cup has historically been a boon for Twitter, bringing in record traffic and an influx of advertising dollars.

But this time, when the global soccer tournament started on Nov. 20, Twitter’s U.S. ad revenue was running at 80 percent below internal expectations for that week, three people with knowledge of the figures said.

In tandem, Twitter was rapidly cutting its revenue projections. The company previously forecast that it would generate $1.4 billion in the last three months of the year, down from $1.6 billion a year ago because of the global economic downturn. But as Twitter kept missing its weekly advertising targets, that number slid to $1.3 billion, then to $1.1 billion, two people said.

Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, has warned repeatedly that his social media company faces dire financial straits. Interviews with seven former employees and internal documents seen by The New York Times paint a fuller picture of Twitter’s financial woes.

Many of the company’s troubles can be traced to Mr. Musk’s takeover in late October. Since then, advertisers — which provide 90 percent of Twitter’s revenue — have paused some spending on the platform, citing concerns about how Mr. Musk might change the service. The billionaire, a self-described “free speech absolutist,” has reinstated banned accounts and dropped at least one misinformation policy. Hate speech on Twitter has soared in recent weeks, researchers found.

At the same time, Mr. Musk has alternated between wooing advertisers and blasting them. Last month, he threatened a “thermonuclear name & shame” of brands that halted their spending on Twitter. This week, he briefly picked a fight with Apple, which was on track to spend more than $180 million on Twitter ads this year, three people said.

Twitter’s advertising business has become so fraught that it has started offering brands additional incentives. Some brands are committing only to promotions for events, like the Super Bowl, with heavy discounts or clauses that allow them to back out for any reason, according to internal documents and three people familiar with the efforts. Automakers are among the most concerned advertisers, with General Motors raising questions about whether Twitter’s data would be shared with Mr. Musk’s car company, Tesla, three people said.

“There hasn’t been any level of trust from us with Twitter, especially with the whiplash we’ve experienced over the last four weeks,” said Ellie Bamford, the head of global media at R/GA, a creative agency. Last month, IPG, R/GA’s parent and one of the world’s largest advertising companies, recommended that its clients pause their advertising on Twitter.

Mr. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.

Even before he completed his deal for Twitter, advertisers began expressing their doubts. Twitter had 3,980 advertisers in May, the month after Mr. Musk agreed to buy the company, according to MediaRadar, an advertising intelligence company. By October, it had 2,315 advertisers, the fewest of any month until that point.

Advertisers’ confidence in Twitter was shaken further when its sales and advertising team turned over after Mr. Musk took charge. Leslie Berland and J.P. Maheu, who were responsible for maintaining key relationships with some top brands, left last month. Robin Wheeler, a U.S. ad executive who briefly resigned before staying on, was then fired after Mr. Musk asked her to cut employees from the sales team and she refused, two people said.

Dara Nasr, who oversaw Twitter’s European ad operations, also left last month. The company’s ad sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa were down more than 50 percent the week of Nov. 21 from the prior week, two people familiar with the numbers said. The Platformer newsletter previously reported Twitter’s figures for the region.

Mr. Musk also made good on his threat to call out advertisers that paused their spending. On Monday, he posted several barbed tweets about Apple and its chief executive, Tim Cook, noting that the iPhone maker had pulled back its advertising on Twitter. Apple, which does not advertise on Instagram or Facebook, had committed more than $150 million on Twitter ads in 2022 and had exceeded that with more than $180 million in advertising spending, three people said.

But Apple temporarily paused that after a shooting left five people dead at an L.G.B.T.Q. nightclub in Colorado Springs on Nov. 19, two people said. Major brands tend to dial back advertising when there are shootings or disasters so their promotions do not appear next to news or tweets about the tragedies.

Probably in part because hate speech is on the rise and Twitters response rate is decreasing.

Before Elon Musk bought Twitter, slurs against Black Americans showed up on the social media service an average of 1,282 times a day. After the billionaire became Twitter’s owner, they jumped to 3,876 times a day.

Slurs against gay men appeared on Twitter 2,506 times a day on average before Mr. Musk took over. Afterward, their use rose to 3,964 times a day.

And antisemitic posts referring to Jews or Judaism soared more than 61 percent in the two weeks after Mr. Musk acquired the site.

These findings — from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the Anti-Defamation League and other groups that study online platforms — provide the most comprehensive picture to date of how conversations on Twitter have changed since Mr. Musk completed his $44 billion deal for the company in late October. While the numbers are relatively small, researchers said the increases were atypically high.

The shift in speech is just the tip of a set of changes on the service under Mr. Musk. Accounts that Twitter used to regularly remove — such as those that identify as part of the Islamic State, which were banned after the U.S. government classified ISIS as a terror group — have come roaring back. Accounts associated with QAnon, a vast far-right conspiracy theory, have paid for and received verified status on Twitter, giving them a sheen of legitimacy.

These changes are alarming, researchers said, adding that they had never seen such a sharp increase in hate speech, problematic content and formerly banned accounts in such a short period on a mainstream social media platform.

“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. “They have reacted accordingly.”

Mr. Musk, who did not respond to a request for comment, has been vocal about being a “free speech absolutist” who believes in unfettered discussions online. He has moved swiftly to overhaul Twitter’s practices, allowing former President Donald J. Trump — who was barred for tweets that could incite violence — to return. Last week, Mr. Musk proposed a widespread amnesty for accounts that Twitter’s previous leadership had suspended. And on Tuesday, he ended enforcement of a policy against Covid misinformation.

But Mr. Musk has denied claims that hate speech has increased on Twitter under his watch. Last month, he tweeted a downward-trending graph that he said showed that “hate speech impressions” had dropped by a third since he took over. He did not provide underlying numbers or details of how he was measuring hate speech.

On Thursday, Mr. Musk said the account of Kanye West, which was restricted for a spell in October because of an antisemitic tweet, would be suspended indefinitely after the rapper, known as Ye, tweeted an image of a swastika inside the Star of David. On Friday, Mr. Musk said Twitter would publish “hate speech impressions” every week and agreed with a tweet that said hate speech spiked last week because of Ye’s antisemitic posts.

Changes in Twitter’s content not only have societal implications but also affect the company’s bottom line. Advertisers, which provide about 90 percent of Twitter’s revenue, have reduced their spending on the platform as they wait to see how it will fare under Mr. Musk. Some have said they are concerned that the quality of discussions on the platform will suffer.

On Wednesday, Twitter sought to reassure advertisers about its commitment to online safety. “Brand safety is only possible when human safety is the top priority,” the company wrote in a blog post. “All of this remains true today.”

The appeal to advertisers coincided with a meeting between Mr. Musk and Thierry Breton, the digital chief of the European Union, in which they discussed content moderation and regulation, according to an E.U. spokesman. Mr. Breton has pressed Mr. Musk to comply with the Digital Services Act, a European law that requires social platforms to reduce online harm or face fines and other penalties.

Mr. Breton plans to visit Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters early next year to perform a “stress test” of its ability to moderate content and combat disinformation, the spokesman said.

On Twitter itself, researchers said the increase in hate speech, antisemitic posts and other troubling content had begun before Mr. Musk loosened the service’s content rules. That suggested that a further surge could be coming, they said.

If that happens, it’s unclear whether Mr. Musk will have policies in place to deal with problematic speech or, even if he does, whether Twitter has the employees to keep up with moderation. Mr. Musk laid off, fired or accepted the resignations of more than half the company’s staff last month, including those who worked to remove harassment, foreign interference and disinformation from the service. Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of trust of safety, was among those who quit.

The Anti-Defamation League, which files regular reports of antisemitic tweets to Twitter and keeps track of which posts are removed, said the company had gone from taking action on 60 percent of the tweets it reported to only 30 percent.

“We have advised Musk that Twitter should not just keep the policies it has had in place for years, it should dedicate resources to those policies,” said Yael Eisenstat, a vice president at the Anti-Defamation League, who met with Mr. Musk last month. She said he did not appear interested in taking the advice of civil rights groups and other organizations.

“His actions to date show that he is not committed to a transparent process where he incorporates the best practices we have learned from civil society groups,” Ms. Eisenstat said. “Instead he has emboldened racists, homophobes and antisemites.”

The lack of action extends to new accounts affiliated with terror groups and others that Twitter previously banned. In the first 12 days after Mr. Musk assumed control, 450 accounts associated with ISIS were created, up 69 percent from the previous 12 days, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank that studies online platforms.

Other social media companies are also increasingly concerned about how content is being moderated on Twitter.

When Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, found accounts associated with Russian and Chinese state-backed influence campaigns on its platforms last month, it tried to alert Twitter, said two members of Meta’s security team, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The two companies often communicated on these issues, since foreign influence campaigns typically linked fake accounts on Facebook to Twitter.

But this time was different. The emails to their counterparts at Twitter bounced or went unanswered, the Meta employees said, in a sign that those workers may have been fired.

Who told Musk that turning Twitter into /b/ and /pol/ would be profitable. The far-right seem to believe they are entitled or have the right to these advertiser’s time and money.

[Hurdergaryp]

Twitter advertising revenue 80% bellow expectation, with a drop from 3,980 advertisers to 2,315.

The World Cup has historically been a boon for Twitter, bringing in record traffic and an influx of advertising dollars.

But this time, when the global soccer tournament started on Nov. 20, Twitter’s U.S. ad revenue was running at 80 percent below internal expectations for that week, three people with knowledge of the figures said.

In tandem, Twitter was rapidly cutting its revenue projections. The company previously forecast that it would generate $1.4 billion in the last three months of the year, down from $1.6 billion a year ago because of the global economic downturn. But as Twitter kept missing its weekly advertising targets, that number slid to $1.3 billion, then to $1.1 billion, two people said.

Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, has warned repeatedly that his social media company faces dire financial straits. Interviews with seven former employees and internal documents seen by The New York Times paint a fuller picture of Twitter’s financial woes.

Many of the company’s troubles can be traced to Mr. Musk’s takeover in late October. Since then, advertisers — which provide 90 percent of Twitter’s revenue — have paused some spending on the platform, citing concerns about how Mr. Musk might change the service. The billionaire, a self-described “free speech absolutist,” has reinstated banned accounts and dropped at least one misinformation policy. Hate speech on Twitter has soared in recent weeks, researchers found.

At the same time, Mr. Musk has alternated between wooing advertisers and blasting them. Last month, he threatened a “thermonuclear name & shame” of brands that halted their spending on Twitter. This week, he briefly picked a fight with Apple, which was on track to spend more than $180 million on Twitter ads this year, three people said.

Twitter’s advertising business has become so fraught that it has started offering brands additional incentives. Some brands are committing only to promotions for events, like the Super Bowl, with heavy discounts or clauses that allow them to back out for any reason, according to internal documents and three people familiar with the efforts. Automakers are among the most concerned advertisers, with General Motors raising questions about whether Twitter’s data would be shared with Mr. Musk’s car company, Tesla, three people said.

“There hasn’t been any level of trust from us with Twitter, especially with the whiplash we’ve experienced over the last four weeks,” said Ellie Bamford, the head of global media at R/GA, a creative agency. Last month, IPG, R/GA’s parent and one of the world’s largest advertising companies, recommended that its clients pause their advertising on Twitter.

Mr. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.

Even before he completed his deal for Twitter, advertisers began expressing their doubts. Twitter had 3,980 advertisers in May, the month after Mr. Musk agreed to buy the company, according to MediaRadar, an advertising intelligence company. By October, it had 2,315 advertisers, the fewest of any month until that point.

Advertisers’ confidence in Twitter was shaken further when its sales and advertising team turned over after Mr. Musk took charge. Leslie Berland and J.P. Maheu, who were responsible for maintaining key relationships with some top brands, left last month. Robin Wheeler, a U.S. ad executive who briefly resigned before staying on, was then fired after Mr. Musk asked her to cut employees from the sales team and she refused, two people said.

Dara Nasr, who oversaw Twitter’s European ad operations, also left last month. The company’s ad sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa were down more than 50 percent the week of Nov. 21 from the prior week, two people familiar with the numbers said. The Platformer newsletter previously reported Twitter’s figures for the region.

Mr. Musk also made good on his threat to call out advertisers that paused their spending. On Monday, he posted several barbed tweets about Apple and its chief executive, Tim Cook, noting that the iPhone maker had pulled back its advertising on Twitter. Apple, which does not advertise on Instagram or Facebook, had committed more than $150 million on Twitter ads in 2022 and had exceeded that with more than $180 million in advertising spending, three people said.

But Apple temporarily paused that after a shooting left five people dead at an L.G.B.T.Q. nightclub in Colorado Springs on Nov. 19, two people said. Major brands tend to dial back advertising when there are shootings or disasters so their promotions do not appear next to news or tweets about the tragedies.

Probably in part because hate speech is on the rise and Twitters response rate is decreasing.

Before Elon Musk bought Twitter, slurs against Black Americans showed up on the social media service an average of 1,282 times a day. After the billionaire became Twitter’s owner, they jumped to 3,876 times a day.

Slurs against gay men appeared on Twitter 2,506 times a day on average before Mr. Musk took over. Afterward, their use rose to 3,964 times a day.

And antisemitic posts referring to Jews or Judaism soared more than 61 percent in the two weeks after Mr. Musk acquired the site.

These findings — from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the Anti-Defamation League and other groups that study online platforms — provide the most comprehensive picture to date of how conversations on Twitter have changed since Mr. Musk completed his $44 billion deal for the company in late October. While the numbers are relatively small, researchers said the increases were atypically high.

The shift in speech is just the tip of a set of changes on the service under Mr. Musk. Accounts that Twitter used to regularly remove — such as those that identify as part of the Islamic State, which were banned after the U.S. government classified ISIS as a terror group — have come roaring back. Accounts associated with QAnon, a vast far-right conspiracy theory, have paid for and received verified status on Twitter, giving them a sheen of legitimacy.

These changes are alarming, researchers said, adding that they had never seen such a sharp increase in hate speech, problematic content and formerly banned accounts in such a short period on a mainstream social media platform.

“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. “They have reacted accordingly.”

Mr. Musk, who did not respond to a request for comment, has been vocal about being a “free speech absolutist” who believes in unfettered discussions online. He has moved swiftly to overhaul Twitter’s practices, allowing former President Donald J. Trump — who was barred for tweets that could incite violence — to return. Last week, Mr. Musk proposed a widespread amnesty for accounts that Twitter’s previous leadership had suspended. And on Tuesday, he ended enforcement of a policy against Covid misinformation.

But Mr. Musk has denied claims that hate speech has increased on Twitter under his watch. Last month, he tweeted a downward-trending graph that he said showed that “hate speech impressions” had dropped by a third since he took over. He did not provide underlying numbers or details of how he was measuring hate speech.

On Thursday, Mr. Musk said the account of Kanye West, which was restricted for a spell in October because of an antisemitic tweet, would be suspended indefinitely after the rapper, known as Ye, tweeted an image of a swastika inside the Star of David. On Friday, Mr. Musk said Twitter would publish “hate speech impressions” every week and agreed with a tweet that said hate speech spiked last week because of Ye’s antisemitic posts.

Changes in Twitter’s content not only have societal implications but also affect the company’s bottom line. Advertisers, which provide about 90 percent of Twitter’s revenue, have reduced their spending on the platform as they wait to see how it will fare under Mr. Musk. Some have said they are concerned that the quality of discussions on the platform will suffer.

On Wednesday, Twitter sought to reassure advertisers about its commitment to online safety. “Brand safety is only possible when human safety is the top priority,” the company wrote in a blog post. “All of this remains true today.”

The appeal to advertisers coincided with a meeting between Mr. Musk and Thierry Breton, the digital chief of the European Union, in which they discussed content moderation and regulation, according to an E.U. spokesman. Mr. Breton has pressed Mr. Musk to comply with the Digital Services Act, a European law that requires social platforms to reduce online harm or face fines and other penalties.

Mr. Breton plans to visit Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters early next year to perform a “stress test” of its ability to moderate content and combat disinformation, the spokesman said.

On Twitter itself, researchers said the increase in hate speech, antisemitic posts and other troubling content had begun before Mr. Musk loosened the service’s content rules. That suggested that a further surge could be coming, they said.

If that happens, it’s unclear whether Mr. Musk will have policies in place to deal with problematic speech or, even if he does, whether Twitter has the employees to keep up with moderation. Mr. Musk laid off, fired or accepted the resignations of more than half the company’s staff last month, including those who worked to remove harassment, foreign interference and disinformation from the service. Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of trust of safety, was among those who quit.

The Anti-Defamation League, which files regular reports of antisemitic tweets to Twitter and keeps track of which posts are removed, said the company had gone from taking action on 60 percent of the tweets it reported to only 30 percent.

“We have advised Musk that Twitter should not just keep the policies it has had in place for years, it should dedicate resources to those policies,” said Yael Eisenstat, a vice president at the Anti-Defamation League, who met with Mr. Musk last month. She said he did not appear interested in taking the advice of civil rights groups and other organizations.

“His actions to date show that he is not committed to a transparent process where he incorporates the best practices we have learned from civil society groups,” Ms. Eisenstat said. “Instead he has emboldened racists, homophobes and antisemites.”

The lack of action extends to new accounts affiliated with terror groups and others that Twitter previously banned. In the first 12 days after Mr. Musk assumed control, 450 accounts associated with ISIS were created, up 69 percent from the previous 12 days, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank that studies online platforms.

Other social media companies are also increasingly concerned about how content is being moderated on Twitter.

When Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, found accounts associated with Russian and Chinese state-backed influence campaigns on its platforms last month, it tried to alert Twitter, said two members of Meta’s security team, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The two companies often communicated on these issues, since foreign influence campaigns typically linked fake accounts on Facebook to Twitter.

But this time was different. The emails to their counterparts at Twitter bounced or went unanswered, the Meta employees said, in a sign that those workers may have been fired.

Who told Musk that turning Twitter into /b/ and /pol/ would be profitable. The far-right seem to believe they are entitled or have the right to these advertiser’s time and money.

It would be in character for right wing extremists to start terror campaigns against corporations reluctant to advertise on platforms said extremists consider to be their turf, given their intrinsically criminal and violent nature. This would not even be new, given how pizzo, or protection money, is an old concept.

[Emotional Support Crocodile]

(Image)
(Image)
(Image)

Is that genuine?

[Spirit of Hope]

(Image)
(Image)
(Image)

Is that genuine?

Signs point to yes.

[The Holy Therns]

Your chauvinism is showing.

Hello pot….

I ship it.

[Hurdergaryp]

Hello pot….

I ship it.

For the rule is that whenever people are vehemently disagreeing with each other in NationStates General, they not-so-secretly lust for each other with barely contained passion.

[Dumb Ideologies]

Hello pot….

I ship it.

A ship so cursed even Jack Sparrow would go nowhere near it.

[Ethel mermania]

Is that genuine?

Signs point to yes.

It might be legit, but at-will employees don't get arbitration in the states.

[Spirit of Hope]

Signs point to yes.

It might be legit, but at-will employees don't get arbitration in the states.

It would depend on a number of factors, the letter appears to imply that a part of the agreement that Musk signed when taking over Twitter placed rules about firing employees and severance pay.

[Sordhau]

Your chauvinism is showing.

Hello pot….

I'm almost afraid to ask by what metric you think I'm a chauvinist. I know it'll be bullshit so maybe I shouldn't bother?

Hello pot….

I ship it.

This contempt you seem to have for me is a bit off-putting considering we've never really interacted at all. Not sure what your problem is and really don't care but please stay away from me if you're going to be all weird about it.

I ship it.

For the rule is that whenever people are vehemently disagreeing with each other in NationStates General, they not-so-secretly lust for each other with barely contained passion.

Please don't ship me with men, thank you.

[Gravlen]

Signs point to yes.

It might be legit, but at-will employees don't get arbitration in the states.

Twitter has previously argued that employeed have agreed to arbitrate any dispute arising out of their employment as part of their job offer packet.

Plaintiffs each signed an arbitration agreement that mutually binds them and Twitter to arbitrate any dispute arising from or related to their employment on an individual basis. The agreement encompasses the claims asserted in the FAC. As a result, the Court should compel arbitration of their individual claims, dismiss the class claims, and dismiss this action.

Either they would have to allow for a class action lawsuit, which they've gone to court disputing, or they would have to allow arbitration for every individual employee with an unsolved dispute.

You can't have it both ways, and Twitter has made their stand:

Musk’s stewardship of Twitter has triggered class actions arguing the company failed to give proper notice before laying off thousands of employees and contractors, as well as class claims that his demand that workers return to the office and log “long hours at high intensity” discriminates against disabled workers.

Musk’s Tesla Inc. invoked employee arbitration agreements to escape a class action related to mass layoffs at the electric car maker. Those workers have challenged an order dismissing the case pending arbitration.

Prominent plaintiffs lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan of Lichten & Liss-Riordan PC, who represents the laid-off workers who sued Tesla and Twitter, said Twitter has basically argued it doesn’t have to worry about the law because the workers are bound by an arbitration agreement.

“If former Twitter employees need to bring individual arbitrations in order to enforce their rights, we are ready to represent them—and will bring hundreds or thousands of arbitrations if necessary to ensure that Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, is held accountable under the law,” she said. “No one is above the law.”

Twitter Asks Court to Push Layoff Class Action Into Arbitration

[Ethel mermania]

It might be legit, but at-will employees don't get arbitration in the states.

Twitter has previously argued that employeed have agreed to arbitrate any dispute arising out of their employment as part of their job offer packet.

Plaintiffs each signed an arbitration agreement that mutually binds them and Twitter to arbitrate any dispute arising from or related to their employment on an individual basis. The agreement encompasses the claims asserted in the FAC. As a result, the Court should compel arbitration of their individual claims, dismiss the class claims, and dismiss this action.

Either they would have to allow for a class action lawsuit, which they've gone to court disputing, or they would have to allow arbitration for every individual employee with an unsolved dispute.

You can't have it both ways, and Twitter has made their stand:

Musk’s stewardship of Twitter has triggered class actions arguing the company failed to give proper notice before laying off thousands of employees and contractors, as well as class claims that his demand that workers return to the office and log “long hours at high intensity” discriminates against disabled workers.

Musk’s Tesla Inc. invoked employee arbitration agreements to escape a class action related to mass layoffs at the electric car maker. Those workers have challenged an order dismissing the case pending arbitration.

Prominent plaintiffs lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan of Lichten & Liss-Riordan PC, who represents the laid-off workers who sued Tesla and Twitter, said Twitter has basically argued it doesn’t have to worry about the law because the workers are bound by an arbitration agreement.

“If former Twitter employees need to bring individual arbitrations in order to enforce their rights, we are ready to represent them—and will bring hundreds or thousands of arbitrations if necessary to ensure that Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, is held accountable under the law,” she said. “No one is above the law.”

Twitter Asks Court to Push Layoff Class Action Into Arbitration

If thats the agreement they signed thats the agreement they signed and arbitration is where it goes.

As long as they pay through feb 2, which I think was the day they said. They don't have to file the WARN notice till whatever date is required by the state. ( though currently they are within the nys period, but weren't when the layoffs were announced )

[Stellar Colonies]

Your version is much, much worse. Jesus Christ, you do not need to cite fucking stereotypes of Americans, everyone knows the stereotypes of Americans.

Except for Americans!

It is difficult to be ignorant of them when they are so frequently referenced.

[Hispida]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/elon-musk-kanye-west-twitter-suspended-swastika-1235273922/
apparently photoshopping the swastika together with the Star of David is too much for Elon "Free Speech" Musk

not photoshopped, but it has nothing to do with judaism nor nazism

[Minoa]

Who told Musk that turning Twitter into /b/ and /pol/ would be profitable. The far-right seem to believe they are entitled or have the right to these advertiser’s time and money.

Current mood: deeply furious

In my opinion, the far-right people always seem to peddle free speech, but in reality, they only seem to like free speech that only supports their own views. That's basically replacing one echo chamber with another kind of echo chamber.

This is why algorithms do no good on social media. It only worsens political polarisation. I really wish the Fairness Doctrine would come back, in a way that forces all broadcasters to let the viewer make their mind up.

And the governments around the world have to take a harder line against Russian disinformation, before it damages democracy further! There's something they can use called counter-propaganda.

[Alcala-Cordel]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/elon-musk-kanye-west-twitter-suspended-swastika-1235273922/
apparently photoshopping the swastika together with the Star of David is too much for Elon "Free Speech" Musk

not photoshopped, but it has nothing to do with judaism nor nazism

I'm fairly certain he didn't share that image for its ties to a cult, though.

[Greater Miami Shores 3]

I posted a few times the links of the right wing media claiming Twitter and the Leftist Democrat media were censoring and covering up the Hunter Biden corruption scandal and censuring Trump and the Republicans and many Leftists Democrats on NS dismissed my posts, comments and links like they always, lol and now Elon Musk has made it public, proving me GMS right, lol again.

[Gravlen]

I posted a few times the links of the right wing media claiming Twitter and the Leftist Democrat media were censoring and covering up the Hunter Biden corruption scandal and censuring Trump and the Republicans and many Leftists Democrats on NS dismissed my posts, comments and links like they always, lol and now Elon Musk has made it public, proving me GMS right, lol again.

Covering up Hunter Biden's dick, you mean. Why do you want to look at that guy having sex so badly? I guess to each their own kink.