Elon Musk’s attempt at making Twitter a free-speech haven has led to a rise in hate speech

Musk has vowed to dramatically reshape Twitter, including relaxing the platform’s rules around hate speech and cutting the number of employees in charge of keeping the site free of toxic content. While the billionaire CEO’s “free speech absolutism” has many fans, researchers, civil rights groups and investors warn that his changes could have far-reaching and damaging consequences for society.<br><br>The months since Musk took control of Twitter have been marked by a constant stream of controversies, including a spike in users directing racial slurs at players during the NFL playoffs, a sharp rise in tweets referencing the n-word and an uptick in posts referencing the hashtag #GeorgeSorosHunterBiden. On top of that, the platform has faced criticism from civil rights groups and some advertisers for its broad relaxation of the rules around hate speech.<br><br>“He’s basically rolled back a lot of enforcement, particularly on hate speech,” said Oren Segal, vice president for the Center on Extremism at the Anti-Defamation League. “His account of what free speech means is very different than most people’s.”<br><br>Musk has defended his actions, arguing that Twitter should be as permissive as possible when it comes to freedom of speech. “If in doubt, let the speech exist,” he tweeted in December. “If it’s a gray area, let the tweet exist.” He has also argued that his critics are exaggerating a handful of incidents to create a misleading narrative.