Hate speech on X was consistently 50% higher for at least eight months after tech billionaire Elon Musk bought the social media platform, new research has found. The research looked at the prevalence of overt hate speech including a wide range of racist, homophobic and transphobic slurs.

Hate speech on X dramatically increased during the several months that Elon Musk served as CEO when compared to the prior months, according to a new study. The researchers also found a spike in “likes” of hate posts,

These factors can undermine safe and democratic online environments, and increase the risk of offline harms,' study claims