A new analysis suggests that the rate of hate speech on X was about 50% higher for several months after Elon Musk purchased the social media platform than in prior months, and the amount of bot and bot-like accounts did not decline.

Hate speech on X was consistently 50% higher for at least eight months after tech billionaire Elon Musk bought the social media platform, new research has found. The research looked at the prevalence of overt hate speech including a wide range of racist, homophobic and transphobic slurs.

The number of posts containing slurs doubled and the number of bot accounts also increased, new research by a California team suggests.

These factors can undermine safe and democratic online environments, and increase the risk of offline harms,' study claims