Skyrocketing slurs, racism, and antisemitic content on Twitter may encourage domestic terrorists, report warns: 'Violence is inevitable'

Despite Musk's insistence to the contrary, researchers have found antisemitic and racist slurs have skyrocketed on Twitter since his takeover.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate, the Anti-Defamation League and other groups have found that since the acquisition of the social media platform by Musk, there has been a rise in racist, antisemitic and far-right posts.

In the week after Musk's takeover, anti-gay slurs were up between 39% and 53%, and antisemitic slurs were up 22%. Antisemitic posts referring to Jews or Judaism went up more than 61 percent in the first two weeks of the year, according to the New York Times.

A decade of research has shown that there is no difference between online chatter and real-word harm, according to a national security expert.

Musk has maintained that hate speech impressions are down overall, posting a graph on Friday that showed the downward trend and said "hate speech impressions are the billionaire owner of Twitter, who has rallied against widespread content." Insider's requests for comment were not responded to by Musk or the representatives for the micro-messaging service. The rise of antisemitic content is of particular concern to experts because of the high-profile amplification of anti-Jewish posts by celebrities such as West, who was kicked off the platform again this month after violating the platform's rules against inciting violence. It's a really directed target for this kind of hate and dehumanization. The Washington Post reported that a former Air Force intelligence officer said violence is inevitable. The Department of Homeland Security released a statement late last month regarding current domestic terrorism threats to the United States that highlighted the "enduring threat to faith-based communities, including the Jewish community". The Council for Foreign Relations says that online rhetoric feeds real-world behavior, with hate speech online being linked to increases in violence toward minorities. The Washington Post reported that Kayyem said that the reason for moderation was because they were feeding off this hate. Content moderation was created because of the realization that these kinds of attitudes, if allowed to foster, lead to violent conduct.