Why did Twitter fall victim to a hate raid after Elon Musk's arrival?

Elon Musk made his purchase of Twitter for $44 billion official on October 27, 2022. Elon Musk made his purchase of Twitter for $44 billion official on October 27, 2022. Image: Shutterstock

Hate raids are—unfortunately—nothing new on Twitter. While the reasons are variable, this time the social network was the target of "trolls" who wanted to test its moderation policies.

The arrival of billionaire Elon Musk at the head of Twitter hasn't done anything to put an end to grumbling. While some warn about a potential decline in moderation on the platform, others have gone straight to testing the reliability of the tools. The social network suffered the onslaught of more than 50,000 tweets in just 48 hours, Yoel Roth, Twitter's head of safety and integrity, revealed on October 30, 2022 on his Twitter account. These attacks were carried out by "just" 300 accounts spreading hate speech and participating in misinformation.

According to Yoel Roth, these targeted attacks were meant to highlight the change in moderation on Twitter since the Tesla founder's arrival:  "Twitter’s policies haven’t changed. Hateful conduct has no place here. And we’re taking steps to put a stop to an organized effort to make people think we have,"  he tweeted.

To further emphasize this, the head of safety said that measures had been taken against these "inauthentic" accounts by banning the users concerned. He made a point of highlighting Twitter's willingness "to continue working to address this in the days to come to make Twitter safe and welcoming for everyone." Yoel Roth also published a thread that retweeted the post of Elon Musk who indicated: "To be super clear, we have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies ," on October 29, after revealing that a content moderation council would be formed.

Also read: Musk on the move at Twitter after takeover finalized

Long before Elon Musk's $44 billion takeover of Twitter was made official on October 27, 2022, voices were already being raised against the billionaire's position, interpreted as calling for absolute freedom of expression on the platform.