Lebron James said he doesn’t know Elon Musk and ‘could care less who owns Twitter’ but hopes the billionaire will take hate speech seriously

• Lebron James reacted to information of a giant inflow of hate speech following Elon Musk’s buy of Twitter.

• “I hope he and his individuals take this very severely,” James wrote on Twitter Saturday.

• Twitter responded to the stories of elevated hate speech, saying “hateful conduct” was not welcome on the platform.

Lebron James mentioned the rise of hate speech on Twitter is “scary AF” and urged new Twitter proprietor and CEO Elon Musk to take the difficulty severely.

“I dont know Elon Musk and, tbh, I may care much less who owns twitter,” James wrote on Twitter Saturday, responding to stories that use of the n-word on Twitter rose by practically 500% inside 12 hours of Musk finalizing the acquisition of the platform. “However I’ll say that if that is true, I hope he and his individuals take this very severely as a result of that is scary AF. So many rattling unfit individuals saying hate speech is free speech.”

Trolls trying to check the bounds of the app’s content material moderation additionally flooded the location with anti-LGBTQ slurs and sexist feedback, in response to the Washington Put up. 

Critics of Musk’s acquisition of Twitter have warned that the brand new CEO and house owners management may end result within the platform changing into a “supercharged engine of radicalization,” citing the rise in such content material.

Musk is a self-described “free-speech absolutist,” and mentioned in a Thursday tweet the social media platform ought to adhere “to the legal guidelines of the land.” Hate speech, whereas not clearly outlined beneath U.S. legislation, is mostly thought-about protected beneath the First Modification proper to free speech.

In response to stories concerning the rise of hate speech, Yoel Roth, head of Security and Integrity at Twitter, wrote Saturday evening that Twitter’s guidelines on hateful conduct have remained the identical since Musk took management of the corporate.

In accordance with Roth, 50,000 tweets “repeatedly utilizing a specific slur” originated from the identical 300 accounts, most of which had been described as “inauthentic.”

“Hateful conduct has no place right here,” Roth wrote. “And we’re taking steps to place a cease to an organized effort to make individuals assume now we have.”

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Musk additionally mentioned Friday that he would create a content material moderation council with “broadly various viewpoints.”

“No main content material choices or account restatements will occur earlier than that council convenes,” Musk wrote on Twitter. Thus far, no different particulars of the council, together with who will make up the council physique, have been introduced.

Representatives for Twitter didn’t instantly reply to Insider’s request for remark.

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