UC Berkeley School of Information

Even in the face of overwhelming evidence, false narratives can be incredibly sticky. Many people insist that the earth is flat, that childhood vaccines cause autism, or that climate change is a hoax, despite ample scientific evidence to the contrary. 

“Stories are very powerful,” said Timothy Tangherlini, a UC Berkeley professor in the Department of Scandinavian and the School of Information. “We’re much more comfortable with hearing stories that confirm our beliefs than ones that challenge them.”

A new analysis by UC Berkeley School of Information Ph.D. student Dan Hickey has found that weekly rates of hate speech on the social media platform X rose about 50% in the months after its purchase in October 2022 by Elon Musk, and that the number of bots and bot-like accounts did not decrease, despite Musk’s earlier pledge to reduce bot activity.

Published this week in the open-access journal PLOS One, the study confirms that a sudden spike in hate speech observed by researchers around the time of Musk’s takeover of the company continued through at least May 2023, contradicting claims by X that hate speech on the platform decreased after Musk’s purchase.