LeBron James Says He Hopes Elon Musk Takes Uptick in Hate Speech on Twitter Report ‘Very Seriously’

LeBron James is speaking out in the wake of an influx of hate speech on Twitter.

via People:

After Elon Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of the social media company on Friday, a slew of anonymous user accounts emerged on Twitter, exhibiting racial slurs including Nazi memes and the N-word to test out the limit of the company’s new moderation policies, The Washington Post reported.

“I don’t know Elon Musk and, tbh, I couldn’t care less who owns Twitter. But I will say that if this is true, I hope he and his people take this very seriouslybecause this is scary AF. So many damn unfit people saying hate speech is free speech,” said James, 37, citing the new research included in a Business Insider article.

The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) tweeted on Friday, “over the last 12 hours, the use of the N-word has increased nearly 500% from the previous average.”

Musk, 51, has previously sparked concerns over his seemingly relaxed attitude towards content moderation, which includes his thoughts on reversing Donald Trump’s permanent ban.

But shortly before the Twitter takeover was finalized, Musk issued a public letter to advertisers, assuring them that he didn’t want the platform to “become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”

In one of his first tweets on Friday morning, he celebrated the purchase by writing, “The bird is free.”

He also replied to a Tweet from an account that has spread unfounded claims about the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election, according to NBC News. In response to the user’s concern that Twitter was removing followers and preventing their content from being seen, Musk replied, “I will be digging in more today.”

The Washington Post reported that some hateful and explicit messages had been taken down later on Friday.

Twitter is about to change right before our eyes — just watch.

I dont know Elon Musk and, tbh, I could care less who owns twitter. But I will say that if this is true, I hope he and his people take this very seriously because this is scary AF. So many damn unfit people saying hate speech is free speech. https://t.co/Sy0jvXIBnC

— LeBron James (@KingJames) October 29, 2022