Twitter trolls bombard platform after Elon Musk takeover

[brooklynite]

Source: The Guardian

Twitter has been hit by a coordinated trolling campaign in the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover, with more than 50,000 tweets from 300 accounts bombarding the platform with hateful content.

The social media platform said it has been targeted with an attempt to make users think Twitter has dropped or weakened its content policies after the world’s richest man bought the company for $44bn (£38bn) last week.

Twitter’s head of safety and integrity said those running the site had not changed content policies but had been subject to “an organised effort to make people think we have”.

In a Twitter thread posted on Sunday, Yoel Roth said the company had seen a “ton” of tweets posted by a small number of accounts featuring slurs and other derogatory terms. To illustrate the scale of the attack, he said more than 50,000 tweets that repeatedly used one unspecified slur came from just 300 accounts.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/30/twitter-trolls-bombard-platform-after-elon-musk-takeover

[ratchiweenie]

1. I closed my account the day he took over. Knew this was coming. They

can have it.

[chia]

4. I closed mine the day before you. No one will miss me, but while I will miss the up-to-the-minute

news, commentary, and boots-on-the-ground video, I've been working for literally years now for ways to de-digitalize my life, because I remember life before social media and I liked it better then.

One slow news replacement that's really been excellent: substack. That's where I follow Heather Cox Richardson, for example. I have the emptywheel site in my bookmarks. It's not the same as seeing their real-time commentary on Twitter, but maybe I need to convince myself that instantaneous, unending newsreels don't need to dominate my days. It's a process.

DU is my best news aggregator, so I'm thankful for that.

[ratchiweenie]

5. Yep. DU is my go to along with Washington Post.

[chia]

16. I still subscribe to WaPo but that may end too if they don't do their journalistic duty. I'm fed up.

[Native]

10. If Reddit didn't have so many duplicate ops, that would be my #1 go-to.

Almost as soon as a reporter posts a link on Twitter to an upcoming story, it finds its way to Reddit.

I still like Twitter, and I only follow left leaning individuals and entities. I've also been very deliberate about my followers (many are DUers). To give you an idea of the effect that the supposed boycot has been having, I've lost about 25 followers (out of just under 1,000). Not much of a change. I should also mention that there have been a lot of tweets by liberal leaders asking us to stay and fight.

I think staying is important at this point.

[chia]

17. I don't disagree that staying is important. But considering Musk's disgusting now-deleted tweet

I don't know if the territory is worth fighting for there. I'm at a loss, to be honest.

[Native]

18. I know what you mean.

[imavoter]

19. My husband died last year. took pics of the few people following him.

downloaded three pictures, and just deleted his account.

I'll hold onto mine, I think for a while, just to see it go the way of MySpace.

[Nixie]

2. This was all very predictable. One of the biggest clues is who

he has attacked on social media. That made it obvious who he had it in for.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

3. All these scary "racists are taking over"! Posts

It’s exactly the same for me. No rise in racist Tweets - but I don’t go looking for low follower egg accounts and I don’t have enough of a following to attract them.

[aggiesal]

6. The 7 Best Twitter Alternatives in 2022 ...

https://www.lifewire.com/best-twitter-alternatives-5114545

[Fullduplexxx]

7. But we should stay?

[Mz Pip]

9. I'm staying

At least for now. I don’t like feeling I’m being driven off.

It really is a good place for breaking news.

[Native]

11. The best place for breaking news!

[jgmiller]

15. Exactly why give in to the terrorists

[Warpy]

8. Good, let him learn first hand what unmoderated speech is like

and that whatever Russian agent he's been boffing is not only wrong but clearly out of her mind.

[LeftInTX]

13. Yep!

[groundloop]

14. Look at what happened with The Discussionist

It didn't take vary long before it was dominated by right wing nutjob hatred. I've come to the conclusion that hatred spreads far easier than compassion and understanding.

[republianmushroom]

12. LIKE