Perhaps no group of people is more concerned about Elon Musk’s obvious plan to make Twitter free for all freedom of speech than those most likely to be harassed: women, racial minorities and other marginalized groups.
They fear that a more indifferent approach to the platform’s police management will encourage hate speech, harassment and misinformation providers to exacerbate their misconduct – an opportunity Musk has done little to distract.
However, even those who have faced extreme harassment on Twitter say they are unlikely to leave the platform. Despite the negative psychological consequences, they value Twitter as a diverse forum for expressing their views and engaging with others.
This could help explain why Musk is showing little concern about the bottom line on unrestricted free speech, although advertisers – who make up about 90% of Twitter’s revenue – may not feel the same way.
Renny Bracey Sherman, an abortion rights activist, has endured a steady stream of predictable criticism on Twitter and the occasional eruption of vile tweets: messages calling for her death, photos of aborted embryos and her recent purchase as a Nazi.
“It’s an installation of hatred, blood and violence,” said Brace Sherman.
But while some celebrities are threatening to leave Twitter for Musk, more typical users like Bracey Sherman say it’s not that simple. They can’t leave Twitter and expect their followers to join them.
To alleviate the hatred, Bracey Sherman blocked thousands of people and used filters to hide the most extreme messages. She also reports the most unpleasant messages on Twitter, although she says the platform rarely takes action.
Twitter did not respond immediately to comment. The company says on its website that it does not allow targeted harassment or intimidation that could make people afraid to talk. And he says he does not tolerate violent threats.
Musk called himself an “absolutist of free speech.” In tweets to his 85 million followers since Twitter accepted his $ 44 billion offer on Monday, Musk has made it clear that he intends to regulate content with a much lighter touch and that he is not very concerned about criticism that is likely to nourish the harmful content.
“The extreme reaction of antibodies from those who fear freedom of speech says it all,” Musk tweeted on Tuesday.
Playful, aggressive and often teenage, Musk’s tweets show how he used social media to create his public image of a cheeky billionaire who is not afraid to offend. They may also reveal clues as to how Musk will manage the platform he hopes to own.
On Tuesday, Musk criticized one of Twitter’s top lawyers involved in content moderation decisions. This has led some of his followers to make racist and misogynistic comments about lawyer Vijaya Gade, who was born in India and immigrated to the United States as a child.
The excitement engulfing Twitter reflects what other social media companies have experienced in the recent past. When Facebook slowed down to remove then-President Donald Trump from the platform for his role in the January 6 uprising in the Capitol, users called for a boycott, but there was no mass eviction.
Even when tired users leave a social media platform, there is usually a stream of new users coming right behind them. Experts say that it is not the most angry users who are leaving, but those who simply do not benefit from the platform.
While research shows that all types of people are vulnerable to online bullying, extensive research shows that women and people of color are much more likely to be targeted, something Twitter itself acknowledges. This targeting also applies to people with disabilities, people belonging to religious minorities and members of the LGBTQ community.
Michael Kleinman, who studied online harassment for Amnesty International, said that if Twitter allowed more hateful and offensive speeches, marginalized people who were attacked were likely to express themselves less.
“No one feels safe in a public square, where as soon as you speak, a hostile crowd shouts at you, shouting obscenities. This is no longer a public square. This is an arena, “Kleinman said.
Brianna Wu understands this arena like everyone else.
She has received threats of sexual assault and death on Twitter since 2014, when she created the video game Revolution 60, in which women are the main characters. The harassment was part of a larger online campaign targeting women game developers, known as GamerGate.
Since then, Wu has worked closely with Twitter’s trust and security team to improve the platform. She said it “terrified” me to hear Musk talk about repealing – if not completely erasing those efforts.
“We fought very, very hard to improve the platform for women, for LGBTQ people and people of color,” said Wu, who is white and identifies as bisexual.
But Wu has no plans to leave Twitter, on which she – a former candidate for the Massachusetts Congress – relies on personal and professional relationships. “I made lifelong friends on Twitter. I think it’s really sad that in order to get this human connection, I’m going to have to deal with harassment again, which is damaging and killing your humanity. “
Not everyone is determined to stay. Comic book writer Kelly Sue DeConik, who faces harassment as a proponent of gender equality in the entertainment industry, said she would wait to see what changes Musk would make before making a decision.
“If it just becomes a place where people yell at each other and call each other names and wish each other badly, I’m going out,” DeConik said.
Bridget Todd, a spokeswoman for UltraViolet, an organization that advocates discrimination in all its forms, said that although Twitter has managed to reduce harassment on its platform in recent years, it has not used it as much as ever.
Todd said she was deeply concerned that Musk was directing the company to remove the protections it has – which it considers inadequate. But she does not intend to leave the platform.
“Our voices are as powerful on platforms as Twitter,” she said. “I don’t necessarily think this is a sign of the end of this, because I know our voices can really hold out.”
Evan Feeney, director of the Color of Change campaign, an online racial justice organization working to improve the lives of blacks in the United States, called Musk’s pressure to ease Twitter content standards “an alarming development.” He predicted more coordinated attacks on black people, especially black women.
“It’s never good when a billionaire who deliberately mixes freedom with harm with freedom of speech controls one of the (largest) social media platforms in the world,” Feeney said. “We have spent years insisting that Twitter implement policies that we believe have made the platform better. It is worrying that they can be reversed with the push of a button. “
Twitter harassment is also spreading in the real world, highlighting how many victims are sometimes forced to endure.
Bracey Sherman says people have put up stickers with racist symbols, including swastikas and monkeys, on her potted plants and the front door of her home. harden and ignore it.
– What should I be able to do? she asked. “The fact that you’re sending me pictures of Nazis and telling me I have to be raped over and over and over again?”
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Associated Press writer Todd Richmond contributed to the report from Madison, Wisconsin, and Hallelujah Hadero contributed from New York. Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska.
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