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February 9, 2023 4:49 pm
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Neo-Nazis Flocked to Twitter After Musk Takeover, New Report Says

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avatar by Dion J. Pierre

Social media applications. Photo: Public Domain.

Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has brought droves of neo-Nazis and extremists to the platform, according to a new report by Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM).

“Since Elon Musk acquired Twitter, it has become not only a safe space for hate, especially antisemitism, but also a vector for its spread,” CAM CEO Sacha Roytman said on Wednesday. “Many white supremacists and other extremists have perceived it as a place where there is permission to incite, and even a single tweet from someone like Nick Fuentes or Ye has the power to sow seeds of hate for years to come. It is a very real and tangible threat.”

Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, Inc., purchased Twitter for an estimated $44 billion in October after months of hesitating to follow through on an agreement he made to do so in April.

Data compiled by CAM with support from the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) shows that antisemitic tweets mentioning George Soros and ‘globalists’ have doubled since he first offered to buy it in April. Additionally, “Groyper accounts,” i.e. those operated by neo-Nazis, grew by roughly 2,000 percent on the day Musk announced that he would join Twitter’s board and by 1,000 percent since his acquisition of it was completed.

The report argues that neo-Nazis, anticipating Musk’s efforts to reduce censorship and limit progressive predominance on Twitter, marked his takeover as a time to storm the platform “en masse.”

“These groups depict Musk as an ally who will permit them to freely spread their hateful ideology,” it says. “Kanye West’s antisemitic activities were well received by an array of extremist elements, especially the Groypers, who quickly joined West as a vanguard to galvanize and spread hatred, often showcasing his presidential hashtag #Ye24 in their Twitter bios.”

Accounts owned by West, who legally changed his name to ‘Ye,’ and Nick Fuentes have increased their followings substantially, the report adds, noting that West is now portrayed as a “messianic, black Hitler.”

Such activity is “forecast real world antisemitic incidents,” it continued, citing Christopher Brown’s planning an attack on a New York City synagogue hours after he accused Jews of operating the transatlantic slave trade on Twitter.

The report recommended that lawmakers and regulatory bodies take a harder look at how social media platforms foster extremism.

“The consequences of these behaviors are not borne by Twitter,” it concluded. “Rather, they appear to be borne by real-world vulnerable communities downstream of hateful activity online.”

Follow reporter Dion J. Pierre at @DionJPierre.

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