Retweets and mentions of anti-LGBTQ slurs before and after Musk takeover 2022
On October 27th, 2022, tech-billionaire Elon Musk acquired Twitter, assigning himself the role of the company's new CEO. Between September 27th and November 28th, retweets and mentions of the anti-LGBTQ "groomer" slur increased significantly. Before Musk's takeover, nine selected anti-LGBTQ accounts saw an increase of around 1,200% in retweets of tweets with the slur, going from 3,600 retweets to over 48 thousand post-acquisition. Additionally, there was a 1,100% increase in mentions of tweets with the slur, up from 5,300 to more than 65 thousand.