Twitter has an advertising problem. The social media platform is still dealing with a negative cash flow and significant debt due, according to Elon Musk, to a 50% drop in advertising revenue. Recent data from Emburse found that even as ad spend on Twitter fell, it rose on other, more "Gen-Z-oriented" platforms.
Companies -- including Ben & Jerry's -- are interested in advertising on platforms with high value and "low tumult," according to Emburse. And since Musk acquired the platform and loosened up content moderation, gutting the teams previously responsible for that task, the platform has been tumultuous. And, according to many users and some researchers, more hateful than ever.
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Despite this, Twitter said Tuesday that hate speech has dropped significantly on the platform, adding that "99% of content users and advertisers see on Twitter is healthy."
The reach of the hate speech that does exist on Twitter, the platform said, continues to be limited, representing an "extremely small fraction of the overall conversation."
The Bird app partnered with Sprinklr in March in an effort to measure hate speech on the platform; in May, according to Sprinklr's models, the average daily reach of English-language hate speech impressions was .003% between Jan. and May 2023.
"We estimate hate speech impressions are 30% lower on average vs. pre-acquisition," Twitter said.
Twitter's new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, went further, attempting -- in a lengthy tweet -- to disprove a recent Bloomberg article that highlighted the rise in hate speech on Twitter as the most significant thing keeping advertisers from returning to the platform.
I wonder how hate speech is defined. If it’s the use of slurs or if it has a looser definition. Maybe it’s speech that is against the law.
— Andy Matteo (@AndyMatteoMusic) July 19, 2023
Users, including U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have remained skeptical of Twitter's claims, with some calling for greater transparency, specifically in terms of how Sprinklr's AI model defines "hate speech."
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"I have never experienced more harassment on this platform than I do now," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. "People now pay to give their harassment more visibility."
lololol I have never experienced more harassment on this platform than I do now. People now pay to give their harassment more visibility.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 19, 2023
The de-verification of journalists, civic orgs, and figures has made it impossible to follow conversations. I wish it could be usable again https://t.co/a7tiGAoAKl
One user explained that his timeline used to consist of movies, news and people he followed. Now, the Twitter algorithm recommends "misogynistic, sexist, racist, homophobic and inflammatory tweets from Republicans."
As of February, more than half of Twitter's top 1,000 advertisers have abandoned the platform. Advertisers, according to several advertising executives that Vox spoke to at the time, are concerned with tarnishing their brand reputation by placing ads on a platform that allows hateful and offensive content.
Hate speech is a huge portion of the Discover More feature that appears in the desktop version after tweets.
— Soror Cane (@sororcane) July 19, 2023
The Discover more function overlaps its function with the new tab for you, which has been a great improvement and allows us to discover new accounts, with an algorithm…
But Musk, in his own words, is a free-speech absolutist.
"I'll say what I want to say and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it," he told CNBC in May.
