Charlie Warzel: X is a White-Supremacist Site

[Nevilledog]

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/11/x-white-supremacist-site/680538/

No paywall link
https://www.smry.ai/proxy?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theatlantic.com%2Ftechnology%2Farchive%2F2024%2F11%2Fx-white-supremacist-site%2F680538%2F

X has always had a Nazi problem. I’ve covered the site, formerly known as Twitter, for more than a decade and reported extensively on its harassment problems, its verification (and then de-verification) of a white nationalist, and the glut of anti-Semitic hatred that roiled the platform in 2016.

But something is different today. Heaps of unfiltered posts that plainly celebrate racism, anti-Semitism, and outright Nazism are easily accessible and possibly even promoted by the site’s algorithms. All the while, Elon Musk—a far-right activist and the site’s owner, who is campaigning for and giving away millions to help elect Donald Trump—amplifies horrendous conspiracy theories about voter fraud, migrants run amok, and the idea that Jewish people hate white people. Twitter was always bad if you knew where to look, but because of Musk, X is far worse. (X and Musk did not respond to requests for comment for this article.)

It takes little effort to find neo-Nazi accounts that have built up substantial audiences on X. “Thank you all for 7K,” one white-nationalist meme account posted on October 17, complete with a heil-Hitler emoji reference. One week later, the account, which mostly posts old clips of Hitler speeches and content about how “Hitler was right,” celebrated 14,000 followers. One post, a black-and-white video of Nazis goose-stepping, has more than 187,000 views. Another racist and anti-Semitic video about Jewish women and Black men—clearly AI-generated—has more than 306,000 views. It was also posted in late October.

Many who remain on the platform have noticed X decaying even more than usual in recent months. “I’ve seen SO many seemingly unironic posts like this on Twitter recently this is getting insane,” one X user posted in response to a meme that the far-right influencer Stew Peters recently shared. It showed an image of Adolf Hitler holding a telephone with overlaid text reading, “Hello … 2024? Are you guys starting to get it yet?” Peters appended the commentary, “Yes. We’ve noticed.” The idea is simply that Hitler was right, and X users ate it up: As of this writing, the post has received about 67,000 likes, 10,000 reposts, and 11.4 million views. When Musk took over, in 2022, there were initial reports that hate speech (anti-Black and anti-Semitic slurs) was surging on the platform. By December of that year, one research group described the increase in hate speech as “unprecedented.” And it seems to only have gotten worse. There are far more blatant examples of racism now, even compared with a year ago. In September, the World Bank halted advertising on X after its promoted ads were showing up in the replies to pro-Nazi and white-nationalist content from accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers. Search queries such as Hitler was right return posts with tens of thousands of views—they’re indistinguishable from the poison once relegated to the worst sites on the internet, including 4chan, Gab, and Stormfront.

*snip*

[DaBronx]

1. And yet how many of you are still subscribing to X?

Disgusting.
There is no excuse for continuing to subscribe.
Quit now!!!!!

[Stuckinthebush]

3. And posting X links here

We need to stop sending clicks to that ass.

[Claustrum]

4. I made it a point to never click on any x links.

I am not going to send any eyeballs onto that platform.

[DaBronx]

5. Great point

I propose DU adopt an "X" free policy. Who is with me on this?

[True Blue American]

7. This is one I agree with!

I never visit that site but their reposts are all over. If I wanted to read them I would go ther3.

[sir pball]

9. Not that I actually use it, but I'll delete my account when this young lady deletes hers:

https://twitter.com/aoc

Perhaps you should contact her office with your demands?

https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/contact

[DaBronx]

11. There should not be a hierarchy of quitting

[sir pball]

12. It's not about hierarchy, it's about whose opinion I respect more.

You're a frothing internet rando who hates Twitter (I choose to deadname it like Musky Boy deadnames his trans daughter) and wants it gone on account of the the worst it contains, regardless of how useful it can still be.

AOC is…well, AOC. She still views it as the best platform for the widest engagement, despite its admittedly many and serious flaws.

I know who I agree with.

[Best_man23]

2. Not a good thing when your platform is being compared to Stormfront

Think I'm going to put the whole of the site formerly known as Twitter on my firewall's blacklist next time I'm updating settings.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Forbes thinks X is worth less than $10 billion, less than 25% of what Musk paid for it (mostly funded by foreigners). nt

[True Blue American]

8. Good!

[Flatrat]

10. Surest way to not get read

is to post a xitter link.

Dont support X.