N-word slur jumps 500% on Twitter, Musk says took action

San Francisco, Oct 30 (IANS) After a social media research group revealed that the use of the N-word slur increased by nearly 500 per cent on Twitter after Elon Musk’s takeover, the self-proclaimed ‘free speech absolutist’ on Sunday replied that Twitter has taken action on those trolling accounts.The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) told The Washington Post that use of the N-word on Twitter increased by nearly 500 per cent in the 12 hours immediately after Musk’s deal was finalised last week.NBA star LeBron James called on Musk to take action on such accounts for using the “N Word.””I don’t know Elon Musk and, tbh, I could care less who owns twitter. But I will say that if this is true, 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,” tweeted James who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers.Yoel Roth, who is Head of Safety and Integrity at Twitter, said 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,” tweeted Roth.Musk on Sunday directed James to read the reply by Roth on Twitter.”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,” explained Roth.He further said that Twitter’s policies haven’t changed.”Hateful conduct has no place here. And we’re taking steps to put a stop to an organised effort to make people think we have,” he posted.–IANSna/vd