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How Much Longer Can I Stay On Twitter?

4 min readDec 7, 2022

Social media site welcomes racist trolls

Image: Imagebumoper/Flickr

Like many Twitter users, I’ve watched with bated breath as alt-right billionaire Elon Musk wrestled control of the site promising to turn into a free speech haven. As the weeks went by, that apprehension turned out to be justified. Musk’s idea of “absolute free speech” was opening up Twitter to every right-wing troll and turning off moderation.

In the few weeks of Muks’ ownership, Twitter saw a spike in hate speech. According to The New York Times, hate speech against African Americans has tripled since Musk took over. I noticed during the early days of Musk’s reign of error that Ivermectin, the quack non-cure for COVID-19, briefly trended. Great job, Elon.

“Elon Musk sent up the Bat Signal to every kind of racist, misogynist and homophobe that Twitter was open for business,” said Imran Ahmed, the chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, according to The New York Times. “They have reacted accordingly.”

A Liberal Exodus

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Manny Otiko
Manny Otiko

Written by Manny Otiko

Manny Otiko writes about race, politics and sports. He has been published in Salon and LA Weekly. Follow him at @mannyotiko.bsky.social

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