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Words Matter: Physical Attacks Track Increase in Twitter Hate Speech [1]
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Date: 2023-01-23
Space Karen's "free speech" appears to have increased the amount of physical attackson Jews in gays in the US:
New research to be released later this month by the misinformation tracker Network Contagion Research Institute suggests a connection between real-world incidents and variations of the word “groomer,” often aimed at gays and suggesting that they are adults bent on seducing children. Although polls indicate a significant minority of the population believes otherwise, gay people are not more likely to be predators than straight people. Pre-Musk, Twitter had classed the word “groomer” as hate speech. But usage began spiking not long after Musk said he would buy the platform, and it has surged repeatedly since, often after real-world incidents like the fatal shootings at a gay club in Colorado. Physical attacks track spikes in hate speech on Twitter, researchers say - The Washington Post
Anti-semitism in the site also shows up in the real world:
Recent antisemitic incidents included direct references to rapper Ye, who issued tweets against Jews after Musk welcomed him back to the platformafter his suspension from Instagram. His return to Twitter saw him issue a pledge to go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.” Even after Musk suspended Ye again, tweets referring to Jewish “privilege” or “supremacy” rose, according to Joel Finkelstein, director of Network Contagion and a senior fellow at Rutgers University. An assailant who attacked a man in New York City’s Central Park last month shouted, “Kanye 2024” along with antisemitic comments as he did so, police said. In November, vandals spray-painted “Kanye was rite” along with swastikas on headstones in an Illinois Jewish cemetery. Hate crimes against Jews in New York jumped from nine in September to 45 in November, to make up more than half of bias incidents in the city, according to New York Police Department statistics.
None of this should be a surprise. Words can inspire people to action -- good or bad. If you allow people to spread lies --that gays are pedophiles or Jews are controlling the world -- people who are sick, scared, desperate, hateful, and/or bigoted will be inspired to act. Defenders of absolute free speech pretend that the somehow a marketplace of ideas is the solution here, but that show a complete misunderstanding of how marketplaces work.
People used to die taking medicines. People were allowed to sell "medicines" with very little oversight or regulation -- and people who lied about ingredients and effectiveness soften sold material that ranged from useless to actively harmful. The government stepped and regulated most medicines -- the lies stopped and we can now generally trust medicines. The marketplace was regulated.
If you are serious about speech being a marketplace, you must accept the idea that said marketplace should be regulated. I realize this is a hard question. I am a socialist -- I have no doubt how my opinions would be treated by the majority of people in power in this country. But you cannot have a civil society where lies are allowed unfettered, instant access to billions. You cannot have a functioning democracy when people are allowed to call for death and murder of entire classes of people. We do not have to tolerate intolerance.
The details of this will of course be hard and contentious. But we are seeing how the idea of unfettered hate speech is working -- it is literally killing our fellow citizens and destroying our civil society.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/23/2148713/-Words-Matter-Physical-Attacks-Track-Increase-in-Twitter-Hate-Speech
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