U.S. congressman Jared Moskowitz, the former director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management who was profiled in an award-winning issue of SFBW in 2021, raised the issue antisemitism on Twitter during a House Oversight hearing last week. He was later inundated with antisemitic messages on the platform, he explained in a letter to new owner Elon Musk last Thursday.
“What happened on Twitter directly after the hearing proves my exact point that antisemitism is real and Twitter has become a hate-filled playground for Nazis and anti-Semites,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz told CNN about the hateful comments he received.
According to CNN: “At the hearing on Wednesday, which focused on Twitter’s handling of a New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop in the leadup to the 2020 election, the Florida Democrat criticized his Republican counterparts for saying ‘God bless Elon Musk.’ Moskowitz asked: ‘God bless the guys who is allowing Nazis and antisemitism to perpetuate on Twitter?’ He also cited statistics from the Anti-Defamation League, stating there has been a more than 60% increase in antisemitic comments on Twitter since Musk took over the platform.
“Under Musk’s leadership,” CNN continues, “Twitter has slashed its staff, relaxed some of its content moderation policies and reinstated a number of incendiary accounts that were previously banned. Those moves raised concerns that Musk’s Twitter could contribute to a rise in public displays of hate and antisemitism offline.”
