As it struggles to win back advertisers, Twitter is boldly claiming that over 99% of the content you see on the site is "healthy."
Company reps—including new CEO Linda Yaccarino—publicly pushed back on a Bloomberg article that said Twitter has experienced a spike in hate speech and misinformation since Elon Musk took over the company in 2022.
"This is an absolutely false assertion. 99.99% of Tweet impressions are healthy,” according to a post from the official Twitter Business account.
The statement prompted incredulous replies from users across the platform, which is rife with controversial takes, user dunking, and heated political debates. “Are you high?” one user posted in response through an animated GIF.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat and frequent Musk critic, also couldn’t help but laugh while dismissing the claim. “I have never experienced more harassment on this platform than I do now. People now pay to give their harassment more visibility,” she tweeted, a reference to Twitter Blue, which lets anyone purchase a blue verified checkmark for $8 per month.
Part of the problem is that Twitter is using the word “healthy” to vaguely describe its efforts at content moderation. In reality, the company is likely equating healthy with content that doesn't break its rules—like porn, inaccurate statements, and fiery political comments, along with low-quality ads for things like marijuana edibles and hentai-themed games.
The Bloomberg article says Twitter has experienced a surge in hate speech and misinformation, citing findings from third-party watchdog groups, such as the Center for Countering Digital Hate. For example, you can find posts on Twitter that mention “Hitler was right,” along with users changing their screen names to titles such as “I hate jews so much it's unreal.” Other tweets that remain up include, “if you encourage trannies to read books to children you’re a pedophile,” and “Diversity is a codeword for White Genocide.”
Twitter argues the findings are flawed, and says its content-moderation approach is now a “Freedom of Speech, Not Reach” policy. Rather than delete or ban users, Twitter restricts the reach of tweets “that violate our policies by making the content less discoverable.”
“For example, in comparison to a healthy Tweet, any Tweet that's labeled with this enforcement is restricted from scaling and experiences a dramatic drop in reach of more than 80%,” Yaccarino tweeted. “Additionally, we proactively prevent all ads from appearing adjacent to any content that's labeled.”
Ideally, this content moderation will convince advertisers to return to Twitter at a point when Musk concedes that its ad revenue has fallen by 50%.
Nevertheless, the Center for Counter Digital Hate says the volume and engagement of hate speech on Twitter has still gone up, despite the company’s efforts at content moderation.
"Every other platform will tell you the work is never done," Yaccarino counters. "That’s true for them and for Twitter. But Twitter’s progress is real, we’ve been transparent about it, and we’re proud of it.”