The amount of antisemitic tweets poisoning Twitter timelines has more than doubled since Elon Musk took the platform’s reins, according to a new study.
The research, published on Monday by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, found that antisemitism spiked when the embattled billionaire took control of the site and has stayed at an elevated level ever since. The tweets mostly focus on conspiracy theories referencing Jewish figures controlling the world, Israel, and, of course, white supremacy, according to the study, one of the first to offer a comprehensive look at how and why antisemitism and hate are growing on the social media platform.
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The findings come at a time when offline hate is spiking. The Anti-Defamation League recently recorded its highest number of antisemitic incidents since the organization started tracking it in 1979. Some groups exist solely to target Jewish people in-person in the hopes of going viral online.
“These offline hate incidents should be viewed in the context of surges in online hate, with digital platforms facilitating the radicalization of individuals towards antisemitic world-view and the mass proliferation of narratives which seek to hold Jews responsible for the world’s ills,” reads the study. “If we are to limit the spread of antisemitism and other forms of hate it is essential that policy solutions are found to its proliferation online.”
To get their findings, researchers trained over 20 machine-learning models to identify likely antisemitic tweets and the average number posted weekly before Musk was 6,204. After he took over on October 27, 2022, the number increased to 12,762. That’s a whopping 105% increase. Between June 2022 and February 23, 2023, the study found, 325, 739 antisemitic tweets were sent in English from 146,516 accounts.
The high watermark of hateful tweets came in November with 13,850 posted per week. The uptick corresponded with Kanye West’s antisemitic meltdown which culminated with an appearance on the Alex Jones’ show where he praised Hitler. The study’s findings found one of the key antisemitic topics during this period was people agreeing and amplifying West’s statements.
Of the tweets that referenced a specific person, George Soros, the Hungarian-American billionaire who has long been a target of antisemites and conspiracy theorists, was also a central figure in the majority. Other figures mentioned frequently were Biden, Trump, Jesus, and unsurprisingly, Hitler.
While Musk made several promises about reducing hate speech since taking over Twitter, it’s no secret that antisemites and racists have flourished on the platform under his control. He got rid of Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council, which advised the site on how to deal with hateful activity, and gutted the staff, which meant many of those previously responsible for moderation or safety were gone. Many high-profile neo-Nazis or conspiracists who spread hateful rhetoric were then allowed back on Twitter.
Some of the racists, like Nicholas Fuentes, pushed it too far and were quickly removed after having their accounts reinstated. Others like Andrew Anglin, the editor of the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer, and Varg Vikernes, a neo-Nazi musician who has been convicted of murder, remain active on the website.
At times, Musk has engaged with the conspiracy theorists himself.
But it’s not just old accounts or previously reinstated ones that drove the increase.
“We also identified a surge in the creation of new accounts posting hate speech which correlated with Musk’s takeover. In total 3,855 accounts which posted at least one antisemitic tweet were created between Oct. 27 and Nov. 6,” reads the study. “This represents more than triple the rate of potentially hateful account creation for the equivalent period prior to the takeover.”
While Musk made claims that “freedom of speech does not mean freedom of reach” and promised that hateful tweets would be buried on the platform, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found “no appreciable change in the average levels of engagement or interaction with antisemitic tweets before and after the takeover.”
When VICE News reached out to Twitter for comment about the sharp increase of hateful content on its platform it received an automated response of a poop emoji. Musk, who has long shown a love for outdated internet humor, had previously promised to use that response.
When VICE News responded with, “How do you feel you’re handling the explosion of antisemitism on your platform,” it once again received a poop emoji—an answer that’s hard to disagree with.
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