SANTA CLARA, Calif. (KERO) — Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen says his office is quitting Twitter due to a rise in hateful rhetoric on the platform, for which he is blaming Elon Musk.
According to Rosen, the decision to leave Twitter has been weeks in the making, but the final straw was when Musk recently posted an anti-semitic and racist meme of Pepe the Frog.
"I noticed an explosion of hate speech and racism and antisemitism on that Twitter platform," said Rosen. "That really started me thinking as to why my office and the taxpayers and the people that I represent in this wonderful, diverse community, why I'm using a platform that is making money by getting eyeballs to look at things that are racist and anti-semitic."
The New York Times reported that racist slurs against African Americans have more than tripled since Musk took over, with 60 percent more anti-semitic tweets and twice the number of homophobic tweets. So far, Musk has not issued any response to Rosen's move, but last week, he disputed the claims that hate speech rose when he took over.
In the meantime, Rosen is calling on other district attorneys to also leave Twitter.
