On social media, it’s probably inevitable that “haters gonna hate.” But Twitter this week took steps toward making it more difficult for people to spread racist and offensive speech. Lawyers say that, while Twitter isn’t governed by the First Amendment, it may want to look to U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence for guidance.
Many commentators have argued that Twitter should do more to weed out users that make offensive comments. And hate speech on the platform seems to have increased in the last year, fueled in large part by what has perhaps been the most contentious presidential election season of our generation. A report from the The Anti-Defamation League found a “massive rise” in anti-Semitic tweets targeting journalists. Actress Leslie Jones was recently on the receiving end of an avalanche of racist tweets. And supporters of President-elect Donald Trump targeted Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly with sexist attacks after she challenged Trump in a debate. Trump himself has been accused of bullying for repeatedly making personal attacks against Kelly on Twitter.
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