BIO

Hello! My name is Valeria Boxley, and I'm a second-year from Sarasota, FL. I am seeking a dual degree in Psychology and Finance, with a minor in Japanese. I'm really interested in social media use, and I have enjoyed researching ways to make social media platforms safer for everyone. I currently plan to get an MBA from FSU.

Content Analysis of Conspiracies on Twitter Post Musk Acquisition

Abstract

After Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in October 2022, hate speech and misinformation on the platform increased due to changes in content moderation and the algorithm itself. More than two-thirds of employees were also laid off, with many members of the Trust and Safety team being affected. There is currently little research on how conspiracy theory content has changed on the platform post-acquisition, which is of interest since conspiracy theories can be even more dangerous to users than standalone pieces of misinformation. In this study, 3,600 posts were collected from over 5,000 previously suspended accounts between January and March 2023. A combination of LDA topic modeling and content analysis was then used to categorize frequently-appearing topics. Our results are preliminary, but so far we have found that conspiracy theory content was overwhelmingly right-wing and US-centric. Evidence for conspiracy theories was provided by independent news accounts, which often linked off of Twitter itself and onto other websites with far less content moderation. Many posts were also not flagged for misinformation through the Community Notes feature despite being obviously incorrect. To protect users, content moderation of harmful and offensive content needs to be much stronger and account suspensions should be accompanied with IP bans. Beyond those recommendations, Elon Musk needs to stop encouraging right-wing ideology by publicly promoting and interacting with right-wing accounts, as he sets a precedent for what is acceptable on the platform.

Keywords: Social Media, Twitter, Content Analysis, Conspiracy, Misinformation