Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric increased on Twitter Inc. after Elon Musk bought the platform in October, according to a new report by the gay rights organization GLAAD and the liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America.
(Bloomberg) — Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric increased on Twitter Inc. after Elon Musk bought the platform in October, according to a new report by the gay rights organization GLAAD and the liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America.
Users retweeted anti-LGBTQ speech much more frequently over the past month since Musk bought the platform, the GLAAD and Media Matters analysis shows. The report compared data from the month before Musk’s acquisition with the month after he bought it.
Twitter specifically saw an uptick in the use of the word “groomer,” a pejorative term that equates LGBTQ equality with pedophilia, according to the report.
The groups singled out nine high-profile accounts that they have identified as leading perpetrators of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric on Twitter. That includes YouTube commentator Tim Pool, alt-right conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, conservative pundit Mike Cernovich and others.
Retweets of those accounts’ tweets mentioning the word “groomer” jumped more than 1,200%, going from nearly 3,600 retweets in the months before Musk’s takeover to more than 48,000 in the month following. Those same accounts saw a 1,100% increase in mentions that use the slur, going from more than 5,300 to more than 65,000, according to the report. “Ok Groomer” trended on Twitter earlier in November.
The data contradicts claims by Musk that hate speech impressions have declined on Twitter since he became chief executive officer. And it provides some analysis to bolster anecdotal claims that hateful speech and harassment have escalated since Musk declared he would relax speech rules on the platform and restored accounts that had been suspended for amplifying hate speech.
Twitter and Musk didn’t respond to requests for comment. Musk, who has called himself a free speech absolutist, on Sunday criticized those who state their pronouns, as many LGBTQ people and their allies do.
Kayla Gogarty, the deputy research director for Media Matters and author of the study, said the report focuses on the word “groomer” because it’s become an increasingly popular rallying cry for conservatives opposed to LGBTQ rights. She added that the issue goes far beyond the nine accounts singled out in the report.
“Those are key accounts we zeroed in on to highlight how widespread the issue is,” Gogarty said. “But it goes beyond just these nine key accounts. As soon as Musk took over, we did see a bunch of right-wing figures see how far they could go in some of the language,” she added.
The House Oversight Committee on Wednesday will hold a hearing focused on anti-LGBTQ hate, partly in response to the shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs last month that left five people dead and more than a dozen injured.
The groups plan to share the report’s findings with the committee ahead of the hearing. “I hope in general the committee really considers the impact of a lot of this online hate speech on some of the real-world violence we’re seeing,” said Gogarty.
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