X CEO Linda Yaccarino published a statement on Monday to the official blog of X, formerly Twitter, dedicating the social media company to combating hate speech online while failing to define what constitutes hate speech.
“For all the good, there’s also a point when information independence crosses a line too, and that’s hate speech,” Yaccarino wrote. “We must all act now to combat hate as Elon firmly stated during the European Jewish Association’s symposium.”
“Sadly, since the October 7th terrorist attack antisemitism and hate speech have accelerated in the world. Hate speech completely corrodes our society, it divides people and threatens the very order that affords us the lives we have,” Yaccarino said.
“It’s all our duty to combat hate speech – in our communities and on every platform. Because freedom of speech and safety can and must coexist. And the future of democracy and the global economy depends on it,” the X CEO added.
Yaccarino did not give a clear definition of what hate speech is in the blog update, while calling it a company mandate for X to tackle hate speech on its platform, “Our mandate at X is clear: we must protect free speech, safeguard information independence while tackling antisemitism and hate speech.”
While the X CEO continues to take a hard-line stance against a vaguely defined category of speech, X owner and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has blurred the lines by defending speech many call hate speech.
Musk has, for example, recently vowed to challenge the hate speech bill pending in Ireland’s government, promising to send lawyers’ fees to Ireland to pay for legal challenges to the proposed law should it pass.
“We’ll make sure that if there is an attempt to suppress the voice of the Irish people we do our absolute best to defend the people of Ireland and their ability to speak their mind,” Musk said. “And we will also fund the legal fees of Irish citizens that want to challenge the bill as well.”
And the government will define “hate speech”. The people of Ireland should not stand for this!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 25, 2023
In the past, Musk has questioned the usefulness of the term hate speech altogether, once rhetorically asking, “You can tell it’s propaganda when they choose terms that are impossible to invert. Who is “PRO” hate speech!?”
You can tell it’s propaganda when they choose terms that are impossible to invert. Who is “PRO” hate speech!? 🤣
Their actual goals have nothing to do with hate speech and everything to do with censorship of public dialogue.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 1, 2023
