Racism, antisemitism bombard Twitter since Musk takeover

“Elon now controls twitter. Unleash the racial slurs,” one user wrote, but Musk said the platform will not become a “free-for-all hellscape.” 

By World Israel News Staff

Twitter saw a rash of racist and antisemitic tweets following Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media platform on Thursday – although Musk is not Jewish.

After closing the deal at $44 billion, the business magnate immediately fired CEO Parag Agrawal and other top executives.

“Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints. No major content decisions or account reinstatement will happen before that council convenes,” Musk tweeted on Friday.

While the self-described “free speech absolutist” is expected to take a more easygoing approach to content moderation – Musk announced the deal Thursday by saying, ‘the bird has been freed,’ referring to Twitter’s logo – he told advertisers in a letter Thursday morning that the platform cannot become a “free-for-all hellscape,” The Hill reported.

Nevertheless, it appears antisemites have taken the news as indicating exactly that, as can be seen with a noticeable increase in antisemitism and racism.

“Elon now controls twitter. Unleash the racial slurs,” one user wrote, according to The Washington Post.

One single-word tweet, showing a single racial slur in all capital letters, was retweeted more than 700 times and liked more than 5,000 times, the Post reported, adding that it was tweeted Thursday night and remained online more than 16 hours later.

Musk is not Jewish, although “Elon” is a Hebrew name. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has visited Israel several times and has praised Israel as a “technological power.”