After Elon Musk acquired Twitter, there was a reported dramatic increase in usage of the N-word on the platform and it was hard to ignore.
That caught the eye of LeBron James.
As soon as Musk purchased the social media site, he made it clear he was promoting free speech, but social media users have taken it too far and started using the n-word like crazy.
“I don’t know Elon Musk and, tbh, I could care less who owns Twitter,” he tweeted Saturday. “But I will say that if this is true, I hope he and his people take this very seriously because this is scary AF. So many d–n unfit people saying hate speech is free speech.”
Musk responded to the Lakers star by posting a link Yoel Roth, Twitter’s Head of Safety & Integrity, who explained that the increase of slurs came from 300 inauthentic accounts.
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Musk said he bought Twitter to “try to help humanity, whom I love,” while recognizing that the site “cannot become a free-for-all hellscape.”
“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” Musk tweeted Thursday upon the acquisition becoming official. “There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.”
When the deal became official, though, Musk tweeted “the bird is freed.”
The bird might be a little too free as the number of racist and antisemitic tweets appeared to be spiking following Musk’s takeover of the platform.
Musk purchased the platform for $44 billion. To make his money back, Musk is reportedly considering making verification a Twitter Blue feature. This would essentially mean charging users a monthly $20 fee to keep their blue tick badge. For those who already have the blue tick, it will be removed unless they opt into the fee.
You can only imagine how misinformation will be so easily spread when this goes into effect.
For the Lakers, the team will not 0-82 after they finally picked up first win of season vs. Nuggets. The Lakers are now 1-5 and finally have something to build off of after Russell Westbrook played well off the bench.
He finished with 18 points, eight boards and eight assists on 6-of-12 shooting.
James totaled 26 points (10-22 FG, 2-5 3Pt, 4-5 FT), six rebounds, eight assists and one steal across 35 minutes.
