There are new concerns after Twitter owner Elon Musk said he will grant “amnesty” to users who were kicked off the platform for various reasons, including the use of threats and hate speech.
Musk added that he will also once again sell Twitter verified check marks to user accounts starting next week.
“The amnesty program is very dangerous," said tech industry analyst Tim Bajarin.
Users and experts alike are voicing their concerns after Musk tweeted two days ago that he conducted a Twitter poll and 72% of respondents supported “amnesty” for users, who have been kicked off the platform prior to Musk’s Twitter purchase.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
“The people that were banned were the ones who had a lot of hate speech. They had a lot of threats. They caused a lot of anxiety for a lot of people,” Bajarin said.
Bajarin isn’t the only one who is worried.
Twitter users NBC Bay Area talked with said they’re noticing more hate speech and worry the hate will eventually take shape in the form of violence.
“I mean I believe in free speech, but it also – you know – hate speech. It’s hard to gauge what people will do versus what they will do in person and what they’re going to say online,” said Concord resident Lauren Gallardo.
“It’s poisoning our whole country’s atmosphere and not inconsiderably, leading to mass shootings and things like that,” said Concord resident Max Rief.
Musk responded to amnesty concerns in a tweet and that “incitement of violence will result in account suspension.” Then, he described how Twitter will examine accounts to determine whether they broke any laws or engaged in spam before letting them back on the platform.
“Twitter will be a forum for the peaceful exchange of views,” Musk tweeted.
Musk also tweeted two days ago that “hate impressions are down one-third since they spiked” in late October and early November and he thanked the Twitter team.
Bajarin said Musk should be motivated to regulate hate speech and threats or face the loss of more advertising dollars from corporations concerned about their reputations.
“They don’t want to be associated with a site that fundamentally allows everybody to say whatever they want without any form of restrictions,” he said. “If more advertisers flee, the ability to have significant revenue for the company to keep it afloat is going to be very difficult.”
Bajarin told NBC Bay Area that Twitter may have difficulty regulating speech and fixing bugs in the system after Musk laid off or fired many of the Bay Area’s best code writers.
He said that only time will tell whether twitter can survive in this type of atmosphere or if it might one day go the way of MySpace and become a social media “has been.”
