While Twitter Spaces might be leading in audio social, it also has a big problem: Twitter Spaces is being weaponized by various harmful coalitions, including white supremacists, conspiracy theorists, and other extremist groups. A new report by the Washington Post highlights the copious amounts of hate speech and extremism found on the largely unmoderated side of Twitter Spaces.
To The Extreme
Some examples of this extremist content being spread throughout Twitter Spaces include misinformation and conspiracies about COVID, derogatory discussions about Muslims, Trans people, and African Americans. For a little context, Twitter Spaces is Twitter’s audio-only live stream platform, allowing users to host live audio discussion rooms. The feature was launched back in 2020, with a broader rollout during the later parts of 2021.
According to the report, Twitter executives knew it would be easy for malicious actors to break Twitter’s policies within Spaces, yet employee concerns over these issues were brushed aside in favor of platform growth. Twitter seemingly ‘turned a blind eye’ to what is now (and has always been) a pressing matter.
To be fair, these issues exist beyond the boundaries of just Twitter Spaces. Unlike the tools associated with written content moderation, the same technology for use with audio content is still in the early stages, meaning they’re not as comprehensive and capable, at least not yet. For now, audio moderation relies heavily on user participation, mainly with users reporting prohibited content or with human moderators catching the same while listening in.
Clubhouse, another audio social platform that Spaces seems to have taken inspiration from, faced similar issues when it gained popularity, especially during the early months of the pandemic. Far-right extremists and terrorist groups started flocking to the newly hatched platform, spreading their hateful messages and beliefs. The fact that such actors were able to get on Clubhouse in the first place underlines the vast gap that currently sits within online audio security.
The main issue with Twitter Spaces is that it’s built into an already large social media platform that has hundreds of millions of regular users. Given how Twitter promotes Spaces by putting it at the top of user Feeds, the highly discoverable Spaces makes for an easy target for those with ill-intent.
The Wrap
Right now, the best that Twitter does is record all Spaces chats and temporarily save them for moderation purposes. If a user within Spaces is reported, the platform uses the linked recording to determine the most appropriate sanction. If you ask me, so long as they come across extremist and other forms of hateful and harmful content, the automatic response should be immediate and permanent banning.
Twitter Spaces is certainly a growing front, and we can see Twitter lead within the audio space if done right. It also presents equal disadvantages with all its advantages, with extremist and hateful content topping the far right end of the spectrum. True enough, audio moderation needs significant improvements, but perhaps this discovery serves as an eye-opener for social media and tech giants to address the issue.
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