Elon Musk is alienating one of Twitter’s most valuable assets: Black influencers

By J.J. McCorvey and Char Adams, NBC News

Black users have long been one of Twitter’s most engaged demographics, flocking to the platform to steer online culture and drive real-world social change. But a month after Elon Musk took over, some Black influencers are eyeing the exits just as he races to shore up the company’s business.

Several high-profile Black users announced they were leaving Twitter in recent weeks, as researchers tracked an uptick in hate speech, including use of the N-word, after Musk’s high-profile Oct. 27 takeover. The multibillionaire tech executive has tweeted that activity is up and hate speech down on the platform, which he said he hopes to make a destination for more users.

At the same time, he posted a video last week showing company T-shirts with the #StayWoke hashtag created by Twitter’s Black employee resource group following the deaths of Black men that catalyzed the Black Lives Matter movement, including the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown. His post contained laughing emojis, and someone can be heard snickering off-camera as the T-shirts are displayed.

Musk later posted and then deleted a tweet about the protests — fueled in part by activists on Twitter  — that followed in Ferguson, Missouri, pointing to a subsequent Justice Department report and claiming the slogan “‘Hands up don’t shoot’ was made up. The whole thing was a fiction.”

He has also moved to restore many banned accounts despite condemnation from civil rights groups such as the NAACP, which accused him of allowing prominent users “to spew hate speech and violent conspiracies.” Civil rights leaders have also urged advertisers to withdraw over concerns about his approach to content moderation.

Learn about recent Twitter changes.

If Black influencers leave Twitter, there may be fewer people to use the platform for social justice.

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