Wednesday 23 November 2022 07:35 AM Elon Musk reveals stash of 'STAY WOKE' t-shirts as activists threaten to shame ... trends now
Twitter CEO Elon Musk has posted a video of a 'secret closet' full of 'stay woke' t-shirts, as civil rights activist's put pressure on advertiser's to boycott the social media company after reinstating controversial accounts.
The 12 second video posted by Musk late Tuesday night shows the billionaire businessman holding up a grey t-shirt with the hashtag 'stay woke' on the front.
'Here we are at the merch and there is an entire closet,' Musk begins to say before someone off camera adds 'secret closet' before he proceeds.
'Full of hashtag woke t-shirts,' he finishes saying as the person off camera laughs.
Musk has been at the center of controversy since purchasing Twitter for $44billion and assuming leadership last month.
Twitter has seen racial slurs increase since Musk took the helm and the ban was lifted on former U.S. President Donald Trump's twitter, along with the Twitter Blue fiasco that allowed anyone to be verified.
But Musk maintains that user numbers remain at an all time high, tweeting on Monday that the site had added 1.6M daily active users in the past week.
Elon Musk posted a video of a 'secret closet' full of 'stay woke' t-shirts, as activist's put pressure on advertiser's to boycott the social media company
Musk has been at the centre of controversy since purchasing Twitter for $44billion and assuming leadership last month
Musk maintains that user numbers remain at an all time high, tweeting on Monday that the site had added 1.6M daily active users in the past week
Despite the optimistic numbers, alternative platforms have reported more signups since the takeover.
Hive Social saw reported more than one million sign ups in the last 30 days and sits at the top of Apple's App Store's social network apps chart.
Hive Social, launched in 2019, and is said to be the closest replica of Twitter, with its chronological feed, profiles and lead posts, while pulling inspiration from Instagram by emphasizing visuals.
Many Twitter users seek an alternative because they believe Musk's platform will soon disappear from the internet due to mass firings, reinstatement of previously banned accounts and the Twitter Blue fiasco.
One of the likely reasons for Hive Social's surge is that users believe 'racism and bigotry will not fly' on the platform, while Musk appears to allow it under his free speech guideline.
Hive posted on Twitter Monday that it does not tolerate bigotry and hate, and Donald Trump and Andrew Tate, a controversial YouTube star and kickboxer who was banned from Twitter in 2017 for spewing misogynistic views, are banned from their social media app.
The post notes that 'white supremacists are also deleted, no warning.'
An investigation by the nonprofit U.K.-based Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) found the use of racist, homophobic, transphobic, and anti-Semitic slurs soared significantly after Musk took over Twitter on October 27.
Activists have warned that if advertisers don't boycott the platform unless their demands for a 'safer' site are met, they will expose them
The 'Stop Toxic Twitter' site already has a list of a number of brands who have and haven't cut ties with the social media platform and said Musk is not protecting its users
The Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, California. Musk said in a tweet that has since been deleted that he would sleep in the office until the organization is 'fixed'
The study revealed in Musk's first week of running Twitter, the anti-Semitic slur 'k***', and racist terms 'w**' and 's***' - appeared in 2,598, 1,256, and 935 retweets. That's an increase of 23, 62, and 77 percent, respectively, compared to the average for 2022.
Meanwhile, a coalition of 60+ civil rights and civil society groups have been putting pressure on brands advertising on the social media platform to boycott.
The 'Stop Toxic Twitter coalition' took action after Twitter owner Elon Musk lifted the suspension of former U.S. President Donald Trump's account, which was banned after the January 6th U.S. Capitol attack.
On the group's website, the group has called on all of Twitter's top advertisers to 'cease' their affiliation if he 'undermines brand safety and community standards.'
'Musk must not roll back the basic moderation practices Twitter already has on the books and he must invest the resources necessary to enforce those rules,' it reads.
'This means that Musk should prioritize making the platform safer, focus on ushering in an era where the company has stronger policies to protect users against hate, harassment, and toxicity.
'But he's doing the exact opposite.'
Musk recently complained that pressure from the activists had already caused a 'massive drop in revenue.'
Some 90 percent of Twitter's revenue comes from ads sales.
The coalition has obtained a list of 100 advertisers by total spending this year and said that only 51 advertisers had paused spending.
Hive Social reported one million signups since Elon Musk purchased Twitter
