Criticism of Twitter
Issues such as handling of misinformation and disinformation, proliferation of hate speech, suspension of journalists' accounts, and temporary measures like labeling media outlets as "state-affiliated" and restricting their visibility have sparked criticism.
[9][10] Critics accused the member organizations of being heavily skewed towards "the restriction of hate speech" and a Reason article expressed concern that "there's not a single uncompromising anti-censorship figure or group on the list".
[13] The platform has long been criticized for its failure to provide details of underlying alleged policy violations to the subjects of Twitter suspensions and bans.
After conservatives claimed it censors users from the political right, Alex Thompson, a writer for VICE, confirmed that many prominent Republican politicians had been "shadow banned" by the filter.
[17] The New York Times reported in September 2021 that a Federal Election Commission inquiry into a complaint about the matter found Twitter had acted with a valid commercial reason, rather than a political purpose.
[26] Algorithm changes promoted viral disinformation about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and led to significant gains in followers for media outlets affiliated with Russia, China and Iran.
[36] A European Commission study found that disinformation was most prevalent and received the highest relative engagement on Twitter, compared to other major social networks,[37][38] leading to warnings of a potential ban or fines by the EU for non-compliance with the Digital Services Act.
[54] Twitter insiders told BBC Panorama they were struggling to protect users from trolling and harassment, including misogynistic online hate, and the targeting of rape survivors.
[55] From a study of over 1 million tweets since 2022, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) reported that posts associating LGBT people with "grooming" increased by 119 percent since October 2022, with advertising also appearing alongside what many deemed anti-LGBT rhetoric.
[68][69] In August 2023, it was reported that child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on Twitter was still an issue, despite statements by Musk that removing it was a top priority.
[72][73] The number of staff on Twitter's trust and safety teams were reduced, for example, leaving one full-time staffer to handle all child sexual abuse material in the Asia-Pacific region in November 2022.
[74][75][76] A 2023 investigation by BBC Panorama found concerns that child sexual abuse was rising, following the layoffs and changes at Twitter since Musk's takeover.
[77] In March 2024, The Intelligencer reported on the proliferation of spam posts containing the phrase "░P░U░S░S░Y░I░N░B░I░O░", or similar references to pornographic content appearing in the poster's bio, apparently formatted so as to evade counter-spam measures.
[79][80] Account bans continued to be lifted in late November 2022, beginning with Jordan Peterson, Kathy Griffin, The Babylon Bee, and Donald Trump.
[86][87] In December, neo-Nazi and founder of The Daily Stormer Andrew Anglin was reinstated,[citation needed] within 24 hours of Kanye West's suspension after posting an antisemitic tweet.
If Musk failed to comply, the platform could be suspended,[95] which happened on late August 2024,[96] being lifted after the municipal elections on early October 2024, after the social network appointed a representative in Brazil, blocked the accounts as requested by justice and paid R$28.6 past due in fines applied to X.
He had previously stated, "My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk."
Defending his decision to suspend the accounts, Musk declared a ban on doxxing real-time location data, and Twitter followed suit by updating its policies page.
[112] According to an analysis by the Digital Forensic Research Lab, the change had already taken effect since around March 29, when Twitter stopped filtering government accounts in Russia, China and Iran.
[113] Twitter's decision was controversial; though established by an act of Congress, NPR is an independent news organization that only receives a fraction of its funding through government programs.
Twitter's previous policy had explicitly mentioned NPR, as well as the United Kingdom's BBC, as examples of networks that were not considered state-affiliated due to their editorial independence.
[125][128] In an email to the staff explaining the decision, CEO John Lansing allowed individual NPR journalists and staffers to choose for themselves whether to keep using Twitter, while noting that remaining on the site "would be a disservice to the serious work you all do here".
[121][126] On April 17, Canadian public broadcaster CBC was designated as "government-funded media" by Twitter, in response to a letter from Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre.
[137][138][139] On June 1, the first day of Pride Month, Musk confirmed that a policy against misgendering wouldn't be enforced, and that in his opinion "Whether or not you agree with using someone’s preferred pronouns, not doing so is at most rude and certainly breaks no laws".
[145][146] In November, PragerU would buy a "timeline takeover" advertising spot, which forces an advertisement and accompanying hashtag to be seen by most Twitter users regardless of demographics or preferences for 24 hours, to promote their short film Detrans: The Dangers of Gender-Affirming Care; the "timeline takeover" spot was part of PragerU's estimated $1 million marketing budget for the short film.
[166] In response to allegations it deemed unfair, X Corp. has pursued legal action against nonprofit organizations such as Media Matters and the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
