LeBron James called on Elon Musk to handle the increase in racial slurs on Twitter after he purchased the social media site, and Musk has responded.
On Friday (Oct. 29), James took to the app to air his grievances about the influx of N-Word usage since Musk took over the application.
“I dont know Elon Musk and, tbh, I could care less who owns twitter. But I will say that if this is true,” the 4-time NBA Champion expressed, “I hope he and his people take this very seriously because this is scary AF. So many damn unfit people saying hate speech is free speech.”
On Sunday (Oct. 30), Musk, the self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” caught wind of James’ post and responded with a quote tweet explaining the cause of the hateful speech.
The quote tweet, a post by Yoel Roth, head of safety & integrity at Twitter, details that “Over the last 48 hours, we’ve seen a small number of accounts post a ton of Tweets that include slurs and other derogatory terms. To give you a sense of scale: More than 50,000 Tweets repeatedly using a particular slur came from just 300 accounts.
“Nearly all of these accounts are inauthentic. We’ve taken action to ban the users involved in this trolling campaign — and are going to continue working to address this in the days to come to make Twitter safe and welcoming for everyone.”
According to Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), the use of the N-word on Twitter increased by 500% in the 12 hours following Musk finalizing his deal to purchase the site.
The Washington Post reports that trolls rallied other accounts to test the boundaries of Musk’s newly acquired platform’s moderation policies.
“Elon now controls Twitter. Unleash the racial slurs. K***S AND NI**ERS,” one account expressed, using slurs for both Jews and Black people. “I can freely express how much I hate ni**ers, now, thank you Elon,” another account proclaimed.
Before James’ plea for action, Twitter’s new owner tweeted a message seemingly in anticipation of the offensive language.
On Thursday (Oct.28) Musk, 51, announced that they would be creating a “content moderation council” with no significant decisions regarding accounts being made before that happens.
“Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints. No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.”
As of Monday (Oct. 31), no updates have been given on the “content moderation council.”