#covid misinformation

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Before Elon Musk bought Twitter, slurs against Black Americans showed up on the social media service an average of 1,282 times a day. After the billionaire became Twitter’s owner, they jumped to 3,876 times a day.

Slurs against gay men appeared on Twitter 2,506 times a day on average before Mr. Musk took over. Afterward, their use rose to 3,964 times a day.

And antisemitic posts referring to Jews or Judaism soared more than 61% in the two weeks after Mr. Musk acquired the site.

These findings — from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the Anti-Defamation League and other groups that study online platforms — provide the most comprehensive picture to date of how conversations on Twitter have changed since Mr. Musk completed his $44 billion deal for the company in late October. While the numbers are relatively small, researchers said the increases were atypically high.

The shift in speech is just the tip of a set of changes on the service under Mr. Musk. Accounts that Twitter used to regularly remove — such as those that identify as part of the Islamic State, which were banned after the U.S. government classified ISIS as a terror group — have come roaring back. Accounts associated with QAnon, a vast far-right conspiracy theory, have paid for and received verified status on Twitter, giving them a sheen of legitimacy.

These changes are alarming, researchers said, adding that they had never seen such a sharp increase in hate speech, problematic content and formerly banned accounts in such a short period on a mainstream social media platform.

“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. “They have reacted accordingly.”

Mr. Musk, who did not respond to a request for comment, has been vocal about being a “free speech absolutist” who believes in unfettered discussions online. He has moved swiftly to overhaul Twitter’s practices, allowing former President Donald J. Trump — who was barred for tweets that could incite violence — to return. Last week, Mr. Musk proposed a widespread amnesty for accounts that Twitter’s previous leadership had suspended. And on Tuesday, he ended enforcement of a policy against COVID misinformation.

But Mr. Musk has denied claims that hate speech has increased on Twitter under his watch. Last month, he tweeted a downward-trending graph that he said showed that “hate speech impressions” had dropped by a third since he took over. He did not provide underlying numbers or details of how he was measuring hate speech.

CHANGES AT ELON MUSK’S TWITTER

A swift overhaul. Elon Musk has moved quickly to revamp Twitter since he completed his $44 billion buyout of the social media company in October, warning of a bleak financial picture and a need for new products. Here’s a look at some of the changes so far:

• Going private. As part of Mr. Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, he is delisting the company’s stock and taking it out of the hands of public shareholders. Making Twitter a private company gives Mr. Musk some advantages, including not having to make quarterly financial disclosures. Private companies are also subject to less regulatory scrutiny.

• Layoffs. Just over a week after closing the deal, Mr. Musk eliminated nearly half of Twitter’s work force, or about 3,700 jobs. The layoffs hit many divisions across the company, including the engineering and machine learning units, the teams that manage content moderation, and the sales and advertising departments.

• Verification subscriptions. Twitter began charging customers $7.99 a month to receive a coveted verification check mark on their profiles. But the subscription service was paused after some users exploited it to create havoc on the platform by pretending to be high-profile brands and sending disruptive tweets.

• Content moderation. Shortly after closing the deal to buy Twitter, Mr. Musk said that the company would form a content moderation council to decide what kinds of posts to keep up and what to take down. But advertisers have paused their spending on Twitter over fears that Mr. Musk will loosen content rules on the platform.

• Other possible changes. As Mr. Musk and his advisers look for ways to generate more revenue at the company, they are said to have discussed adding paid direct messages, which would let users send private messages to high-profile users. The company has also filed registration paperwork to pave the way for it to process payments.

On Thursday, Mr. Musk said the account of Kanye West, which was restricted for a spell in October because of an antisemitic tweet, would be suspended indefinitely after the rapper, known as Ye, tweeted an image of a swastika inside the Star of David. On Friday, Mr. Musk said Twitter would publish “hate speech impressions” every week and agreed with a tweet that said hate speech spiked last week because of Ye’s antisemitic posts.

Changes in Twitter’s content not only have societal implications but also affect the company’s bottom line. Advertisers, which provide about 90% of Twitter’s revenue, have reduced their spending on the platform as they wait to see how it will fare under Mr. Musk. Some have said they are concerned that the quality of discussions on the platform will suffer.

On Wednesday, Twitter sought to reassure advertisers about its commitment to online safety. “Brand safety is only possible when human safety is the top priority,” the company wrote in a blog post. “All of this remains true today.”

The appeal to advertisers coincided with a meeting between Mr. Musk and Thierry Breton, the digital chief of the European Union, in which they discussed content moderation and regulation, according to an E.U. spokesman. Mr. Breton has pressed Mr. Musk to comply with the Digital Services Act, a European law that requires social platforms to reduce online harm or face fines and other penalties.

Mr. Breton plans to visit Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters early next year to perform a “stress test” of its ability to moderate content and combat disinformation, the spokesman said.

On Twitter itself, researchers said the increase in hate speech, antisemitic posts and other troubling content had begun before Mr. Musk loosened the service’s content rules. That suggested that a further surge could be coming, they said.

MORE ON ELON MUSK’S TWITTER TAKEOVER

• An Established Pattern: Firing people. Talking of bankruptcy. Telling workers to be “hard core.” Twitter isn’t the first company that witnessed Elon Musk use those tactics.

• Resolving a ‘Misunderstanding’: After Mr. Musk accused Apple of threatening to pull Twitter from its App Store, it appears that a potential feud between the tech titans has been avoided.

• A ‘War for Talent’: Seeing misinformation as a possibly expensive liability, several companies are angling to hire former Twitter employees with the expertise to keep it in check.

• Unpaid Bills: Mr. Musk and his advisers have scrutinized all types of costs at Twitter, instructing staff to review, renegotiate and in some cases not pay outside vendors at all.

If that happens, it’s unclear whether Mr. Musk will have policies in place to deal with problematic speech or, even if he does, whether Twitter has the employees to keep up with moderation. Mr. Musk laid off, fired or accepted the resignations of more than half the company’s staff last month, including those who worked to remove harassment, foreign interference and disinformation from the service. Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of trust of safety, was among those who quit.

The Anti-Defamation League, which files regular reports of antisemitic tweets to Twitter and keeps track of which posts are removed, said the company had gone from taking action on 60% of the tweets it reported to only 30%.

“We have advised Musk that Twitter should not just keep the policies it has had in place for years, it should dedicate resources to those policies,” said Yael Eisenstat, a vice president at the Anti-Defamation League, who met with Mr. Musk last month. She said he did not appear interested in taking the advice of civil rights groups and other organizations.

“His actions to date show that he is not committed to a transparent process where he incorporates the best practices we have learned from civil society groups,” Ms. Eisenstat said. “Instead he has emboldened racists, homophobes and antisemites.”

The lack of action extends to new accounts affiliated with terror groups and others that Twitter previously banned. In the first 12 days after Mr. Musk assumed control, 450 accounts associated with ISIS were created, up 69% from the previous 12 days, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank that studies online platforms.

Other social media companies are also increasingly concerned about how content is being moderated on Twitter.

When Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, found accounts associated with Russian and Chinese state-backed influence campaigns on its platforms last month, it tried to alert Twitter, said two members of Meta’s security team, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The two companies often communicated on these issues, since foreign influence campaigns typically linked fake accounts on Facebook to Twitter.

But this time was different. The emails to their counterparts at Twitter bounced or went unanswered, the Meta employees said, in a sign that those workers may have been fired.

#us politics #news #2022 #twitter #elon musk #ye #yedolf blitler #don't vote for kanye #kanye west #music #celebs #hate speech #freedom of speech #1st amendment #Center for Countering Digital Hate #Anti-Defamation League #isis #qanon #Imran Ahmed #covid misinformation #coronavirus misinformation #Thierry Breton #european union #Digital Services Act #Yael Eisenstat #Yoel Roth #meta #Facebook #bot accounts

[odinsblog]

FLORIDA’S “HEALTH FREEDOM” ACTIVISTS - A Florida hospital has become the latest front for political activists eager to challenge protocols for treating COVID.

While most of the 6,000 hospitals in the United States are privately-run, about 200 are controlled by publicly-elected board members, according to Larry Gage, former president of the National Association of Public Hospitals. Typically, those elections usually have nothing to do with national politics or culture war issues.

But with seats opening on the Sarasota Memorial Hospital's board earlier this year, a group of political activists opposed to COVID protocols saw an opportunity. Now, the hospital has three new board members who question the effectiveness of vaccines and spread medical misinformation. While they're a minority on the nine-person board, their victory has thrown the hospital board's typically quiet meetings into chaos.

More than 200 people showed up to the new members' first meeting in late November, the largest turnout that chairman Tramm Hudson had ever seen in his eight years on the board.

Micheila Matthew and more than a dozen self-described "health freedom activists" demanded an investigation into the hospital's management during the worst of the pandemic. Some had lost loved ones during the peak of the pandemic and blamed the hospital. Others blasted the hospital's leadership for ignoring non-mainstream COVID treatments such as ivermectin, which studies have established do not effectively treat COVID.

"We want answers," Matthew said. "There will be no amnesty. You failed."

While similar public clashes have happened elsewhere, the "health freedom" movement is especially strong in Florida. Gov. Ron DeSantis was one of first state leaders to roll back mask and social distancing guidelines in 2020. Lately, he's used rhetoric that's increasingly hostile to vaccines.

(continue reading)

#politics #republicans #antivaxxers #covidiots #health freedom activists #plague rats #ron desantis #sarasota #sarasota memorial hospital #covid-19 #coronavirus #the gop is a death cult #covid misinformation #covid disinformation

[shreygoyal]

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(Source)

#fox news #covidiots #covid misinformation #fake news #media disinformation #My Tweets

[trmpt]

#covid misinformation

[uboat53]

First lawyers, now doctors. Is it just me or does it seem like professional licensing boards are doing a particularly poor job of actually holding people to the standards of their professions?

#doctors #covid 19 #covid misinformation #misinformation

[dogstardigitalindex]

Podcast: The BS-Free Witchcraft Podcast Host: Trae Dorn (solitary eclectic Wiccan for 20+ years) Episode: 26. Witchcraft in the Time of Coronavirus Air date: 29 August 2020 Playtime: 29 minutes

Website | Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Opens with a then-recent clip of misinformation about curing coronavirus. Talks a bit about social distancing and Covened witches having to experience solitary witchcraft. Many witches are feeling burned out or isolated; it’s okay if you aren’t able to keep up witchy practices. Encourages smaller practices like nature walks. All witches go through phases like this.

#covid misinformation #Solitary witchcraft #burnout #dry spells

[hillshollow]

This is COMPLETE bullshit.

It’s been proven the documentary is using PRE-COVID footage. It’s all misinformation that’s going to kill more people.

Get your booster.

#covid19 #covid misinformation

[drakey-wakey]

i just read this article and ive literally never been more mad about this whole thing. doctors and the government have been intentionally ignoring and pushing misinformation when scientists have been predicting the course of this pandemic the entire way.

#covid #covid denial #article #covid misinformation #let draco say fuck #hate it here!

[mrdeathvampire]

I want to say that our future is to live with COVID 19 that I am not comfortable with everybody wearing masks our faces should be scene so we should wear see through masks no more colored masks hiding our identity! There are more robberies now then ever!! The teachers should be able to communicate with the students and see what facial expressions are being made!!! People listen to others when they can interact with one another. I am starting a blog and making a petition for this.

#government #covidー19 #covid mention #covid deaths #covid tw #covid misinformation #covid masks #covid mandates #covid vaccine #covid victims #president #joseph biden #lgbtq #jewish #hasidic

[kp777]

#covid 19 surge #covid misinformation #covid politics #pfizer

[charliejaneanders]

These groups gave jet fuel to misinformationat a crucial time in the pandemic. The richer they get, the worse off the public is because, indisputably, they’re spouting dangerous nonsense that kills people.

Tax records reveal the lucrative world of covid misinformation

#politics #quotes #covid #misinformation #robert f kennedy jr #rfk jr

[ikishima]

The way these vaccine companies constantly use pics with not a masked person in sight pmtfo their marketing campaign strategy seems contingent on misleading people into believing that the vax will give them total protection and that is NOT TRUE. Even worse when they are tageting seniors with this?

#like on one hand i get that there is a large portion of anti-maskers that do still vax #and this could encourage uptake in that specific demographic #but i truly do not feel like that’s the intent. just capitalizing off of government misinformation #a vaccine will NOT protect you. you need to use multiple layers of protection and a proper mask is pretty much THE most important thing #covid #‘vax and relax’ is a great way to ‘die believing lies’ lets talk about it! #x

[zmyaro]

This is so fucking bleak. At 1/10 infections causing long term consequences, the mass disabling event we’re in is so massive I was wondering how it was going to be handled, because surely it would need to be addressed eventually… it appears that “addressing” has begun, and instead of prevention or support it’s just wholesale dismissal. If you haven’t yet stepped up yet for the disabled (and not yet disabled) people around you, now is the time to start, because if this is the direction they’re going then truly no one is coming to save us.

#COVID-19 #SARS-CoV-2 #Long COVID #John Garred #Misinformation #Disinformation #Health #Public Health

[dogstardigitalindex]

Podcast: The BS-Free Witchcraft Podcast Host: Trae Dorn (solitary eclectic Wiccan for 20+ years) Episode: 22. Witches 4 Hire Air date: 25 April 2020 Playtime: 35 minutes

Website | Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Opens with anti-Covid misinformation from Leah Steele as a way to talk about charging for magical services. This episode has to do with people charging money, usually large amounts, for a person to cast a spell on/for you, and the things they claim to offer are insane - cure cancer. Fake identities running sites (not witch names, but legitimately fake). Spell to protect against coronavirus. Witchcraft services you can’t see aren’t happening.

#covid misinformation #Leah Steele #Witchcraft services #witchcraft for money

[suncaptor]

nothing will make you sympathise with conspiracy theorist ideology more than having a seemingly rare reaction to a vaccine lmao.

#reading articles that try to falsify genuine incorrect information about the covid vaccines from 2021 is making me feel insane #'there's no way the covid vaccine can trigger an autoimmune disorder' uhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHH #factually extremely wrong! #they're soooo condescening too like why on EARTH do you think people who are genuinely sick or scared would believe you. #they'll be like there's no scientific evidence that anyone can be harmed by the covid vaccine <3 blatantly untrue. #I know that part of this is retrospect like obviously since more studies have come out and all #but it's infurirating bc they're from the time *I* was having those symptoms *and* telling doctors about it *and* being told the connection #to my other severe symptoms from the covid vaccine were Utterly Impossible (since proven false) and that if the symptoms WERE related #it meant i had a life threatening illness at worst and had a high chance of losing my vision at best #likeeeeeeeee #doctors still DO NOT know what the fuck they're doing do NOT trust anyone who gives ANY 100% answers #i don't know why i'm doing this i just said to stop obsessing but i'm just reading pages and articles on countering misinformation to make #sure i don't -- i want to know the conspiracy theories to recognise them immediately right #and then people are just saying bullshit to defend themselves #i mean most of the anti covid vacc people were also far right so i don't have too much sympathy for their vaccine ideology #but like. fucking hell what a way to push people into conspiracies. #you CAN'T counter misinformation by SPREADING MORE MISINFORMATION #just because it SOUNDS BETTER and MORE REASSURING to say there's not chance of harm doesn't mean you should #there's A LOW chance of harm THAT IS MUCH MUCH less high than the impacts of covid #god I'm pissed off. 2021 i was so fucking terrified of spreading this shit just by talking about my lived experiences. #to say i was not taking the pandemic seriously OR anti vax is so blatantly ridiculous considering who I am as a person but that doesn't mea #that the covid vaccine specifically didn't make me ill :////// #delete