Racist Trolls Return to Twitter

It is rather unsurprising that with Musk's acquisition of Twitter, racists and bigots feel entitled to return their hatred and bile to the platform.

I cannot imagine why this scabrous lot hink that just because Elon Musk bought Twitter, that their vitriol will be tolerated?

Where do they think they are?  Tesla's assembly shop floor?*

This is not surprising.  The Apartheid era emerald mine heir™ has a long history of complete disinterest in issues relating to bias and bigotry:

An emboldened cast of anonymous trolls spewed racist slurs and Nazi memes onto Twitter in the hours after billionaire industrialist Elon Musk took over the social network, raising fears that his pledge of unrestricted free speech could fuel a new wave of online hate.

The flood of racist posts was among the most prominent signs of how Twitter had changed in the first hours of Musk’s ownership. But those who were expecting even bigger changes, such as the restoration of former president Donald Trump’s account and the layoff of hundreds if not thousands of Twitter employees, will have to wait longer.

Musk on Friday tweeted that he would make “no major content decisions or account reinstatements” until the convening of a new “moderation council.” He promised that the council would have “widely diverse viewpoints” but offered no other information about who would be on it, how its members would be selected, what authority it would have or whether its views would be binding on the company.

To quote drumming giant and Rush lyracist Neil Peart, "If you choose not to decide,  you still have made a choice."

Unfortunately for Twitter, their advertising clients understand this as well:

Twitter did hear from one major advertiser, however, the auto manufacturer General Motors, which told CNBC that it was temporarily suspending advertising on the platform until the direction of the company under Musk becomes clearer. On Thursday, Musk tried to assuage advertiser worries in a tweeted letter in which he promised that the site would not become a “hellscape” or a “free-for-all” and pledged that the app would remain “warm and welcoming to all.”

The reality of those worries became clear after Musk closed the $44 billion deal, however, becoming Twitter’s owner and firing the chief executive officer, chief financial officer, chief policy officer and general counsel.

Within hours, Musk’s portrayal of himself as a “free speech absolutist” and his fierce criticism of the company’s previous leaders as overly rigid and suppressive seemed to have encouraged a wide range of anonymous Twitter accounts to act as if his takeover meant the old rules against bigotry no longer applied.

“Elon now controls twitter. Unleash the racial slurs. K---S AND N-----S,” said one account, using slurs for Jews and Black people. “I can freely express how much I hate n-----s … now, thank you elon,” another said.

The hellscape has become a little bit more hellish in the last day or so.

I expect this to continue for the immediate future, at least until Twitter's advertisers start following GM out the door en masse.

^*In response to repeated allegations of racism on the Tesla shop floor, Elon Musk suggested that employees needed to develop a thick skin.