It’s hard for one to see why a self-proclaimed extremist militant would be doing anything different than Elon with his Twitter policies. Extremism expert says it’s difficult.

Win McNamee/Tristar Media/Nathan Howard/Patrick Fallon; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez/Insider
Experts say that Elon Musk’s Twitter policies aid extremists. Insider spoke to an expert who said Musk undid many safety measures that took years to put into place at Twitter.

Twitter has been plagued by scandals ever since Elon Musk, CEO of Space X, and Tesla decided to start a social media company.

After Twitter’s $44 billion acquisition, Musk implemented policies that led to hate speech. He also dismantled the Trust and Safety council which had recommended ways the platform could protect users.

Musk’s acquisition also had a side effect. Many right-wing extremists who have been reinstated are now able to use the social platform for harassment of other users.

J.M. J.M. Berger, a researcher about extremism on social media, discussed what extremism is and how Musk fits in the right-wing extremist environment.

This interview was edited to be more concise and clear.

I don’t know what you knew about Musk prior to his Twitter takeover. But, is he someone who could have been considered a right wing extremist?

Since the takeover, I believe he has been showing more interest in taking over. He was not interested in the job before he became interested. He isn’t someone I am particularly interested in. Actually, I muted him as people were constantly retweeting my dumb takes and I got tired of looking at them.

However, you will see public figures who start to dabble in far-right things and then shift in this direction. It’s difficult to tell if they’re making a change or if they’re just continuing to be the same person. But, I believe most people can see that it’s not something they’ve always been interested in.

Although I’m not going to speculate on Elon Musk’s personal story, we know that he began his career as a super neutral person and now he explicitly states that he is politically neutral. We’ve noticed two things since then. The first is that he seems to be increasingly interacting with and paying attention to far-right extremists on Twitter. Second, Twitter’s content moderation practices have changed significantly since he took over. This is a clear indication that it favors the far right. Whatever his beliefs in the beginning, or whether there’s been an evolution or if it was something that has always been there, his tenure at Twitter has seen a significant increase in far-right accounts appearing on Twitter. He also seems to be taking policy questions seriously and elevating some of these accounts.

Right-wing extremists wouldn’t consider Elon Musk to be right-wing, would they?

My opinion is that we haven’t heard anything from him about his beliefs. You need to hear from him a statement of belief or ideology if you are going to call something extremist. They believe in the things they want to see happen in society. Based on what I have seen, I wouldn’t argue that he has. Although it’s difficult to determine if he is an extremist, he most certainly supports extremism. His actions, regardless of what he believes, are increasing right-wing extremism and increasing mainstream influence that extremists or right-wing extremists have.

Technically, I wouldn’t say “yes, it’s an extremist”. It’s difficult to imagine what he would do if he were an extremist.

What social media platform does right-wing extremists use to their advantage?

Over the past 10 years, this landscape has seen a significant shift. There are many forums where right-wing extremists can interact — large online communities — and communicate with each other. There are places like Truth Social, Gab, or Parler that don’t put too much pressure on the content. People won’t say “you’ve gone to far; we’re going to suspend you!” They can have an online presence if they only want it. They can reach a wider audience on Twitter. Different types of extremist movements may have different priorities, I’d say. The right wing isn’t using Twitter for what we call proselytization or recruitment. They aren’t trying to win people over. They use it to harass and mobilize harassment. In some cases, it can lead to violence or encourage violence. They harass other accounts, as I have seen from my monitoring of accounts restored after the amnesty. They aren’t trying to express anything or putting up lengthy threads about their beliefs. They’re trolls. They are abusers, harassers, and trolls.

Elon Musk has spoken a lot about his commitment to allowing the “center 80 percent” to have a voice via Twitter. Are these right-wing extremists just a result of Elon Musk’s bad job? Or is there something more sinister?

He’s empowering right-wing extremists. Any argument that he’s trying empower the center is patently absurd and should be treated accordingly.

There are several aspects to this. Talking about extremism while not talking about mainstream politics is a tricky thing in my field of work. There has been a lot of convergence with politics on right, which have become more influenced by extremist views. If we are talking about empowering centrist voices then you can look at polling and look at peoples’ attitudes. A centrist platform wouldn’t empower anti-LGBTQ+ violence and activism, since most people support equal rights of LGBTQ+ people. The mythology of the center is what the far right advances, and that’s the mythological center Elon Musk is interested to promote. This is a harkening back to Nixon’s silent minority idea — the idea that most Americans are red-state voters with family values. It’s false. This is evidently false. They create a mythology that tilts the conversation to the left and allows for more right-extremist views that can lead to open extremism.

What we see right now is a result of a lot more changes in attitudes, norms and mores. In the past 10-15 years there has been a dramatic increase in acceptance of inclusion. This kind of change is usually met with a backlash. That’s what we are seeing right now.

I am aware that Twitter leaders tried to be more inclusive and to combat hate. That’s why so many accounts were suspended before Musk restored many of them. However, I also know that there were criticisms levelled at Jack Dorsey for his handling of prominent white supremacist accounts. Are Elon’s actions any different from the past regimes? Is it because we are in a new era and see his actions as worse than before?

Let me tell you what I think about the big social media platforms. There are two models of ownership for social media — one is the individual leader who directs everything in the company. If that person is a sociopath, then the company will behave in sociopathic manners. Another option is the corporate model that is exploitative. It has its downsides, but it is responsive to shareholder concerns and public relations issues.

Twitter was founded by Jack Dorsey as an individual leadership company. Twitter was forced to transition into content moderation because of Jack Dorsey’s personal views on freedom of speech and ideologies. Twitter was the last platform to have any form of robust moderation. It really took off only after Jack Dorsey left and Twitter became more corporate. Being a participant in this process from the beginning of the discussion about content moderation, it was a difficult battle to get Twitter to where it is today. All that effort, all that fighting and all of the analysis and studies we published — everything that was gained through that work — have been lost in a short time. It is not clear if it will stick.

Twitter faces some difficulties in the removal of most of its content moderation staff. The first is the fact that the European Union is more likely to regulate these platforms then the United States. Twitter has probably already run afoul a lot of these regulators, and they’re likely to run into worse and deeper problems with them over time. Twitter’s current status may not necessarily be the end of it. However, the company faces a lot more existential risks due to Elon Musk’s management of its infrastructure, security and privacy practices. This consent order from the FTC could — and it is a sword over the head — lead to billions in fines. The company is also heavily leveraged by debt so a huge multi-billion dollar loss to its bottom line could potentially make it unprofitable.

It can be difficult to predict what will happen next. There are many possibilities. The most likely scenario is that Twitter will be shut down by one of the existential threats currently hanging over it. If it does not, there will be some give and take. Twitter will need to prove its content moderation capabilities in order to continue operating, especially next spring when the European Union’s Digital Services Act becomes law. If it fails to do so, it could face a ban in Europe. This is a wild, crazy, “Free For All” situation right now. It’s not clear where the dust will settle.

Is there a solution?

Even though corporate models for public good are problematic, traditional incentives like boycotts, advertisers, dissatisfaction, bad headlines and user dissatisfaction can help corporations move. Individuals may not be as susceptible to these pressures, particularly if they don’t have any sense of the public good, any understanding of society, or if their wealth is so great that they are completely immune to any information that might challenge their view of the world. There are certain things that we can do as users of the platform that will change the calculus of a traditional company. I don’t know what Elon Musk would do. If you are worried about the current situation, my advice is to not give money to Twitter. Pay for a blue checkmark. Advertising is not something you should buy. Click on no ads. This is the only lever we have. Although it’s not clear if that’s enough leverage for a change to occur, you can at the very least avoid being complicit in what’s going on.

Business Insider has the original article.
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By: hgetahun@insider.com (Hannah Getahun)
Title: It’s hard to see what an avowed far-right militant ‘would be doing much differently’ than Elon Musk with his Twitter policies, extremism expert says
Sourced From: www.businessinsider.com/interview-how-extremists-benefit-from-less-content-moderation-on-twitter-2022-12
Published Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2023 12:00:00 +0000