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Twitter is still in the early days of its Elon Musk era, but the company\u2019s new owner hasn\u2019t hesitated in leaving his mark<\/a> on the social network.<\/p>\n According to a new survey<\/a> from GLAAD, Amnesty International, and the Human Rights Campaign, prominent LGBTQ accounts are already noticing a difference on the platform under Musk\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n Out of 11 LGBGT organizations surveyed, five reported experiencing more frequent abuse and hate speech following Musk\u2019s takeover in late October. None of the groups saw a decrease in targeted hate during the same time period.<\/p>\n When asked if their organization had encountered a similar uptick in hate on other social networks, 90% of the respondents said that the increase in harassment was limited to Twitter. All of the organizations reported encountering hate speech and harassment on Twitter, whether in the pre or post-Musk eras.<\/p>\n The survey, which focused on accounts with more than 10,000 followers, is far from comprehensive, but it was designed to capture a \u201csnapshot\u201d of the social media landscape in the early months following Musk\u2019s $44 billion takeover. After buying Twitter, Musk quickly reversed many of the company\u2019s content moderation decisions, including some high profile cases that set an ominous precedent<\/a> for the platform\u2019s many LGBTQ users.<\/p>\n In November, Twitter reinstated right wing academic Jordan Peterson and The Babylon Bee, two accounts originally suspended for transphobic tweets<\/a> about transgender actor Elliot Page and U.S. health official Rachel Levine, respectively. Musk had previously characterized Peterson\u2019s infraction as \u201cminor & dubious,\u201d signaling his interest in reversing LGBTQ-related suspensions.<\/p>\n A report from GLAAD and Media Matters<\/a> published in December tracked a handful of popular right-wing Twitter accounts and found a post-Musk spike in the use of the word \u201cgroomer\u201d \u2014 an increasingly prevalent slur that labels queer people as pedophiles. Prior to Musk\u2019s loosening of the platform\u2019s rules around hate, Twitter classified the term as a banned anti-LGBTQ slur<\/a>.<\/p>\n In December, Musk himself made the unfounded suggestion that Yoel Roth, Twitter\u2019s well-respected former head of Trust and Safety, was a pedophile, kicking off a firestorm of anti-LGBTQ harassment that ultimately drove the gay former Twitter executive out of his Bay Area home.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 This lie led directly to a wave of homophobic and antisemitic threats, of which Twitter has removed vanishingly little\u2026 [and] ultimately I had to leave my home and sell it,\u201d Roth told Congress earlier this week.<\/p>\n \u201cThose are the consequences of this kind of online harassment and speech.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n