https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/qanon-white-nationalists-and-hate-speech-experts-reveal-how-the-floodgates-opened-on-elon-musk-s-twitter/ar-AA14PxPL?ocid
The Independent
QAnon, white nationalists and hate speech: Experts reveal how the floodgates opened on Elon Musk’s Twitter
Story by Alex Woodward • 4h ago
One day after officially acquiring Twitter, the world’s wealthiest person pledged that a “content moderation council” would review the restoration of previously banned accounts. Elon Musk said that civil rights groups – as well as those who had experience “hate-fuelled violence” – would be a part of the process.
Then, on 23 November, Musk introduced a Twitter poll asking users whether he should grant “general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam”.
Extremism researchers and experts who have closely studied the spread of online hate and mis- and disinformation have warned that Mr Musk’s acquisition and the mass return of previously banned users could rapidly deteriorate the platform. Under the disingenuous banner of “free speech”, Twitter could become one of the most toxic spaces on the internet for marginalised groups, according to experts.
Without critical guardrails, the platform risks turning into a “hostile environment for people that might be subjected to abuse and the people who don’t want to see it, and that’s the vast majority of people,” according to Imran Ahmed, founder and CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
On 18 November, Mr Musk created another poll asking whether to allow Donald Trump back to the platform. The former president had been permanently suspended from Twitter “due to the risk of further incitement of violence” in the aftermath of the attack on the US Capitol fuelled by his election lies.
Mr Musk also reinstated at least 11 accounts belonging to prominent far-right and anti-trans influencers, including Jordan Peterson and right-wing satirical media company the Babylon Bee, which were both suspended for misgendering transgender people.
Twitter also restored an account for activist group Project Veritas, despite its ban “for repeated violations of Twitter’s private information policy,” as well as the personal account belonging to far-right Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Greene had been suspended for flagrant violations of the platform’s policies against spreading Covid-19 misinformation.
Effective 23 November, Twitter announced that the platform “is no longer enforcing the Covid-19 misleading information policy”.
Conservatives, Republican officials, right-wing personalities and far-right figures have embraced Mr Musk and his ownership of Twitter, projecting the billionaire as a key figure in their crusade against perceived censorship under a leftist online regime. QAnon influencers who have amassed followings on platforms like Telegram and Truth Social after their bans elsewhere are also returning to the platform, while hashtags and phrases connected to the conspiracy theory movement – like WWG1WGA, an acronym for QAnon slogan “where we go one we go all” – are readily searchable.
Conspiracy theorist influencer John Sabal, known as “QAnon John”, is currently running a Twitter account affiliated with The Patriot Voice, which organises QAnon-affiliated conferences that attract well-known Republican figures and far-right personalities. He also believes Mr Musk is a so-called “white hat” working within the government to dismantle the alleged “deep state” against them