SAN JOSE – The Santa Clara County District Lawyer’s Workplace says it’s leaving Twitter amid an “explosion of hate speech” on the favored social media platform below new proprietor Elon Musk.
The workplace’s account, which has 4,520 followers, is ready to be deactivated Tuesday.
“As Individuals, now we have the liberty to loudly specific our political views and strongly disagree with one another,” District Lawyer Jeff Rosen mentioned in a press release Monday. “Nonetheless, when that speech crosses the road into hatred, racism and anti-Semitism, all of our valuable and laborious fought freedoms are undermined and our democracy is weakened. Each American has an ethical obligation to combat towards hate speech. There are lots of methods to do this, giant and small. Right here’s a method: Give up Twitter. My workplace – the biggest prosecutor’s workplace in Northern California – is quitting Twitter.”
Rosen mentioned there was a “proliferation of extremist posts” on the platform. The surge in dangerous content material has been traced partly to Musk’s determination to fireside 1000’s of content material moderators, in addition to the reinstatement of beforehand banned accounts.
“Many of those handles have been beforehand banned by Twitter as a result of they unfold hatred and bigotry. Now they’re again. That isn’t free speech. It’s a cynical advertising and marketing technique,” Rosen mentioned.
“Mr. Musk is hiding backstage of being a defender of balanced public dialogue. But he himself has used Twitter to unfold hatred and bigotry,” Rosen mentioned, referring to an anti-Semitic meme Musk reportedly posted however later deleted. “If anti-Semitism is okay, then so is homophobia, misogyny and racism. Which will assist Mr. Musk earn a living. However it may possibly erode our democracy and destroy our nation by dividing Individuals towards one another.”
In November, Musk claimed that hate speech impressions, or the variety of instances a tweet containing hate speech has been considered, had plummeted on Twitter, CNN reported. Nonetheless, research from the Anti-Defamation League and the Heart for Countering Digital Hate confirmed the other was true. The latter watchdog group, for instance, discovered each day use of the n-word below Musk is triple the 2022 common.
In line with a Montclair State College examine, the usage of hate speech phrases elevated instantly on Twitter within the hours following Musk’s acquisition of the platform.
The examine examined a variety of vulgar and hostile phrases for people primarily based on race, faith ethnicity and sexual orientation. The seven-day common of tweets utilizing the studied phrases previous to Musk’s acquisition was by no means increased than 84 instances per hour. However on Oct. 28 from midnight to midday instantly following the acquisition, the hate speech was tweeted practically 4,780 instances, in line with the examine.
“The thought of lowering moderation on social media has all the time led to the unfold of hate and conspiracies,” Bond Benton, a Montclair professor who contributed to the examine and researches on-line extremism, mentioned in a press release. “That is notably harmful to younger folks on platforms.”
Rosen referred to as on different district attorneys will be part of his workplace in leaving the platform.
“I ask different district attorneys round our nation to hitch me in standing towards hatred and bigotry by leaving Twitter,” Rosen mentioned. “We proudly symbolize the folks, all of them. As American prosecutors, we communicate with one voice – towards crime, violence, greed, and hatred. We don’t want 280 characters or a billionaire’s app to say, ‘Bigotry has no house within the land of the free and the house of the courageous.’ ”
The district legal professional’s workplace plans to proceed posting content material on its web site and Fb web page.
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