Criticism of Twitter
Twitter, later known as X, has faced various criticisms over the years, particularly concerning content moderation, censorship, and platform management.
Twitter has faced intensified controversy since the company's acquisition by Elon Musk. Issues such as handling of misinformation and disinformation, proliferation of hate speech, suspension of journalists' accounts, and temporary measures like labeling media outlets as "state-affiliated" and restricting their visibility have sparked criticism. Twitter continues to struggle with challenges such as viral misinformation, hate speech, and antisemitism controversies.
Twitter is also blocked by several governments. Currently, Twitter is blocked in eight countries around the world: China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
Older Twitter criticisms and controversies
In June 2009, after being criticized by Kanye West and sued by Tony La Russa over unauthorized accounts run by impersonators, the company launched their "Verified Accounts" program.In 2016, Twitter announced the creation of the Twitter Trust & Safety Council to help "ensure that people feel safe expressing themselves on Twitter". The council's inaugural members included 50 organizations and individuals. The announcement of Twitter's "Trust & Safety Council" was met with objection from parts of its userbase. Critics accused the member organizations of being heavily skewed towards "the restriction of hate speech" and a Reason article expressed concern that "there's not a single uncompromising anti-censorship figure or group on the list".
Twitter's policies have been described as subject to manipulation by users who may coordinate to flag politically controversial tweets as allegedly violating the platform's policies, resulting in deplatforming of controversial users or users who made tweets they object to. The platform has long been criticized for its failure to provide details of underlying alleged policy violations to the subjects of Twitter suspensions and bans.
In 2018, Twitter rolled out a "quality filter" that hid content and users deemed "low quality" from search results and limited their visibility, leading to accusations of shadow banning. After conservatives claimed it censors users from the political right, Alex Thompson, a writer for VICE, confirmed that many prominent Republican politicians had been "shadow banned" by the filter. Twitter later acknowledged the problem, stating that the filter had a software bug that would be fixed in the near future.
In October 2020, Twitter prevented users from tweeting about a New York Post article about the Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory, relating to emails about Hunter Biden allegedly introducing a Ukrainian businessman to his father, Joe Biden. Senators Marsha Blackburn and Ted Cruz described the blocking of the New York Post on Twitter as "election interference". The New York Times reported in September 2021 that a Federal Election Commission inquiry into a complaint about the matter found Twitter had acted with a valid commercial reason, rather than a political purpose. The FEC inquiry also found that allegations Twitter had violated election laws by allegedly shadow banning Republicans and other means were "vague, speculative and unsupported by the available information."
Criticisms and controversies since acquisition by Elon Musk
Criticism of rebranding
The rebranding itself has been criticized on the basis that the trademarkability of the name and logo is weak: there are almost 900 companies in the U.S. that own an X trademark, including an existing social media-related logo owned by Meta Platforms.Handling of misinformation and disinformation
himself had been critical of Twitter's moderation of misinformation prior to his acquisition of the company. However, since the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk, the platform has been criticized for enabling the increased spread of disinformation. After the transition, Musk eliminated the misinformation moderation team, and stopped enforcing its policy on labeling tweets with misleading information about coronavirus. Algorithm changes promoted viral disinformation about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and led to significant gains in followers for media outlets affiliated with Russia, China and Iran. While Twitter had joined a voluntary program under the European Union's to fight disinformation in June 2022, Musk pulled the company out of the program in May 2023.As of September 2023, Twitter relied exclusively on its Community Notes program to combat misinformation, leading to failures in labeling misinformation. The program has become responsible for spreading misinformation as well as delays in fact-checking. A European Commission study found that disinformation was most prevalent and received the highest relative engagement on Twitter, compared to other major social networks, leading to warnings of a potential ban or fines by the EU for non-compliance with the Digital Services Act.
In October 2023, media outlets and experts observed significant disinformation related to the 2023 Israel–Hamas war. A BBC journalist described a "deluge" of false information, including by "blue tick" accounts, and CNBC found that while some videos were flagged as "misleading or false", identical re-posts remained unflagged. Despite Hamas being banned on Twitter as a terrorist organization, some of its propaganda videos have circulated on the platform.
An analysis from NewsGuard found that Verified users, described as "superspreaders of misinformation", produced 74% of the most viral misinformation related to the Gaza war during the first week of the conflict. The study analyzed 250 of the most-engaged posts on Twitter, based on the most popular false or unsubstantiated claims, that had received over 100 million views and one million engagements from users. On December 18, 2023, the European Union announced it would be taking action against Twitter over the spread of disinformation.
Increase in hate speech
Following Musk's acquisition of Twitter, multiple organizations reported a rise in hate speech on the platform, including the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the Anti-Defamation League, and a research group at Tufts University. The Center for Countering Digital Hate report found that anti-Black slurs appeared on Twitter at nearly three times the rate they had prior to the acquisition and that homophobic and transphobic slurs had risen by 52% and 62% respectively. Academics and researchers studied the spread of hate speech on Twitter primarily by accessing the Twitter API, which was shut down in February 2023. According to a Reuters survey, this removal led to the modification or cancellation of more than 100 ongoing studies.According to the Institute of Strategic Dialogue, from June 2022 to February 2023, the number of anti-semitic tweets doubled on the platform, with removal of such content also increasing, while the number of Islamic State accounts had also increased by 70%. In March, a study from the BBC found a third of the 1,100 reinstated accounts appeared to have violated Twitter guidelines. Twitter insiders told BBC Panorama they were struggling to protect users from trolling and harassment, including misogynistic online hate, and the targeting of rape survivors.
From a study of over 1 million tweets since 2022, the Center for Countering Digital Hate reported that posts associating LGBT people with "grooming" increased by 119% since October 2022, with advertising also appearing alongside what many deemed anti-LGBT rhetoric. The study featured five high-profile accounts including Libs of TikTok, Christopher Rufo, Tim Pool, and James Lindsay. Media monitoring group GLAAD described Twitter as "the most dangerous platform for LGBTQ people" with X ranking lowest on its Social Media Safety Index.
In November 2023, the CCDH released a new report claiming 98% of misinformation, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other hate speech, in relation to the Israel-Hamas war, remained on X after 7 days of reporting, generating over 24 million views, and that the community failed to provide measures against reported hateful conduct. X responded by detailing the removal of 3,000 accounts and taking action against 325,000 pieces of content, such as restricting the reach of a post. On November 24, the European Union halted advertisements on X referring to an "alarming increase" in hate speech and misinformation. A spokesperson for the European Commission confirmed that X is affected by the EU rules, and has advised European institutions to abstain from advertising on the platform.
Following the Dublin riots in Ireland on November 23, X faced criticism for allowing "vile messages" on the platform, described as hate speech, while other social media platforms, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, complied with Garda requests for taking down content. After Prime Minister Leo Varadkar called for incitement to hatred legislation to be updated, Musk responded by stating "the Irish PM hates the Irish people".