New York
Act Daily News
—
A Jewish lawmaker who spoke about the issue of antisemitism on Twitter throughout a House Oversight listening to this week targeted on the corporate was later bombarded with antisemitic messages on the platform, he defined in a letter to new proprietor Elon Musk on Thursday.
“What happened on Twitter directly after the hearing proves my exact point that antisemitism is real and Twitter has become a hate-filled playground for Nazis and anti-Semites,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz instructed Act Daily News in regards to the hateful feedback he acquired.
At the listening to on Wednesday, which targeted on Twitter’s dealing with of a New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop computer within the leadup to the 2020 election, the Florida Democrat criticized his Republican counterparts for saying “God bless Elon Musk.” Moskowitz requested: “God bless the guys who is allowing Nazis and antisemitism to perpetuate on Twitter?” He additionally cited statistics from the Anti-Defamation League, stating there was a greater than 60% enhance in antisemitic feedback on Twitter since Musk took over the platform.
Under Musk’s management, Twitter has slashed its workers, relaxed a few of its content material moderation insurance policies and reinstated numerous incendiary accounts that have been beforehand banned. Those strikes raised issues that Musk’s Twitter may contribute to an increase in public shows of hate and antisemitism offline.
Musk, nonetheless, has repeatedly pushed again at claims that hate speech is rising on the platform. In December, for instance, Musk claimed “hate speech impressions,” or the variety of instances a tweet containing hate speech has been seen, “continue to decline” since his early days of proudly owning the corporate.
Twitter, which eradicated a lot of its public relations group throughout final 12 months’s layoffs, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Moskowitz and plenty of different Democrats on the subpanel used their allotted time to grill the previous Twitter executives testifying on the listening to in regards to the firm’s insurance policies for policing hate on the platform. During his questioning, Moskowitz additionally rebuked former President Donald Trump for internet hosting white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago final 12 months. He introduced a big copy of a hateful publish that Fuentes had tweeted at Moskowitz, telling the room, “No, not all Republicans are Nazis, but I gotta tell you, Nazis seem really comfortable with Donald Trump. So I have questions about that.”
In his letter to Musk, Moskowitz stated he shared a clip exhibiting his line of questioning on his official authorities Twitter account, after which “the reply section of my post was flooded with hateful, antisemitic comments and images.” He added: “At the time that I am writing this letter, I have received over 200 such comments on one tweet. This does not include other posts of mine that have since received antisemitic comments, including a video honoring the victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting.”
Moskowitz pointed to a November 30 National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin warning from the Department of Homeland Security, which “issued domestic terror threats to multiple groups, including the Jewish community,” as proof of his heightened concern. “DHS notes that threat actors have recently mobilized to violence, and there is an ‘enduring threat’ to the Jewish community,” he writes.
“With this direct and heightened threat environment in mind, how will you work with other stakeholders to combat the rise of antisemitism on Twitter?,” Moskowitz concludes in his letter to Musk.
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, echoed Moskowitz’s issues.
“Antisemitism has no place on any social media platform that doesn’t want to further the harassment and exclusion of marginalized communities,” Greenblatt instructed Act Daily News Thursday. “While Twitter ostensibly has an anti-hate policy that includes antisemitism, it is unclear the degree to which it is being enforced.”
Greenblatt stated the ADL continues to flag “batches of antisemitic content” to Twitter, however he stated the corporate has solely taken motion on “a fraction of them” since Musk acquired the corporate. He additionally raised issues in regards to the workers cuts and the reinstated accounts that have been banned beforehand.
“These findings, combined with Twitter gutting its trust and safety operations, suggest serious issues will continue to persist on the platform as it pertains to effective content moderation and the proliferation of antisemitism,” Greenblatt stated.
Source: www.cnn.com