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Perhaps no group has been more concerned than those most likely to be harassed—women, racial minorities, and other marginalized groups—about Elon Musk’s plan to make Twitter a free speech for all.
They fear a more hands-on approach to moderating the platform will encourage suppliers of hate speech, bullying and disinformation to increase their bad behavior – a possibility that Musk has done little to ward off.
Still, even those who have experienced extreme harassment on Twitter say they are unlikely to leave the platform. Despite the negative psychological damage, they still place a high value on Twitter for expressing their opinions and interacting with others.
This may help explain why Musk is little concerned about unrestricted freedom of speech, even though advertisers, who make up 90% of Twitter’s revenue, don’t feel the same way.
Biracial abortion rights advocate Renee Bracey Sherman endures a constant stream of predictable criticism and sometimes an explosion of despicable tweets on Twitter: messages demanding her death, photos of aborted fetuses, and more recently, her photoshopped as a Nazi.
“This is a montage of hatred, blood, and violence,” said Bracey Sherman.
But while some celebrities have said they plan to leave Twitter because of Musk, more typical users like Bracey Sherman say it’s not that simple. They can’t easily get attention wherever they go, they can’t leave Twitter, and they can’t wait for their followers to join them.
To reduce hate, Bracey Sherman has blocked thousands of people and uses filters to hide some of the most extreme messages. She also reports some of the scariest posts to Twitter, though she says the platform rarely does anything about them.
While Twitter did not immediately respond for comment, the company says on its site that it does not allow targeted harassment or intimidation that might make people afraid to speak up. And he says he doesn’t tolerate violent threats.
Musk has described himself as a “free speech absolutist” and believes Twitter will thrive as a forum for public discussion with fewer restrictions. He didn’t give many details about his plans and didn’t immediately respond to inquiries Wednesday, but has made it clear that he wants to limit his tweets to his 85 million followers since Twitter accepted its $44 billion bid to buy Musk. the company’s content moderation efforts.
“The extreme antibody response of those who fear freedom of expression says it all,” Musk said on Twitter on Tuesday.
The hum on Twitter reflects what other social media companies have experienced in the recent past; such as Facebook’s slow move to remove then-President Donald Trump from the platform for his role in the January 6th uprising in the Capitol. And history shows that boycott attempts are rarely successful.
Technologists say it’s not easy to leave social platforms – your friends or colleagues are involved and there are few alternatives. And even if fed up users leave, a steady stream of new users follow in their wake. Experts say that those who leave are not the most frustrated users, but those who have no use for the platform.
While surveys show that all types of people are vulnerable to online harassment, extensive research shows that women and people of color are much more likely to be targeted. This also applies to people with disabilities, people from religious minorities, and members of the LGBTQ community.
Michael Kleinman, who works on online harassment for Amnesty International, said that if Twitter allowed more hateful and abusive speech, marginalized people who were attacked were less likely to express themselves.
“No one feels safe in a square where a hostile crowd descends upon you the moment you speak, screaming obscene. It is no longer a public square. It’s an arena,” said Kleinman.
Brianna Wu understands that arena as well as anyone.
He has been receiving sexual assault and death threats on Twitter since 2014, when he created Revolution 60, a video game featuring women. The harassment was part of a larger online campaign targeting female game developers known as GamerGate.
Wu has since worked closely with Twitter’s trust and security team to develop the platform. Hearing Musk talk about undoing — if not completely deleting — those efforts “stimulates me,” he said.
“We struggled very, very hard to develop the platform for women, LGBTQ people and people of color,” said Wu, who is white and self-identified as bisexual.
But Wu – a former Congressional candidate in Massachusetts – has no plans to leave the Twitter, which he trusts for personal and professional relationships. “I have developed lifelong friends on Twitter. It’s really sad that in order to achieve that human connection, I have to re-engage with the abuse that has damaged and killed your humanity.”
Not everyone is determined to stay. Comic book writer Kelly Sue DeConnick, who has been harassed as an advocate for gender equality in the entertainment industry, said she’ll wait to see what changes Musk will make before making a decision.
“If this becomes a place where people yell at each other, call each other names, and wish each other was sick, I’m out,” DeConnick said.
UltraViolet spokesperson Bridget Todd, who advocates for all forms of discrimination, said that although Twitter has managed to reduce harassment on its platform in recent years, it does not use it as much as before.
Todd said he is deeply concerned that Musk is guiding the company to remove the protections it has – which he finds insufficient. But he has no intention of leaving the platform.
“Our voice is very strong on platforms like Twitter,” he said. “I don’t think that marks the end of it, because I know our voice can really hold up.”
Evan Feeney, campaign director for Color of Change, an online racial justice organization working to improve the lives of Blacks in the United States, described Musk’s effort to relax content standards on Twitter as a “worrying development.” He envisioned more coordinated attacks on Black people, especially Black women.
“It is never good for a single billionaire to deliberately combine freedom to do harm with freedom of speech to control one of the world’s (largest) social media platforms,” Feeney said. “We’ve spent years pushing Twitter to enforce policies that we think make the platform better. It’s alarming that these can be undone with the flip of a switch.”
The harassment on Twitter also spills over into the real world, highlighting how many victims sometimes have to endure.
Bracey Sherman says people have placed stickers of racist symbols, including the swastika and monkey, on potted plants and on the front door of her home. That’s why she’s so harsh on those who praise unlimited freedom of expression and suggest that she harden up and ignore it.
“What should I be able to deal with?” he asked. “You sent me pictures of the Nazis and told them I had to be raped over and over?”
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