Twitter is researching whether it should ban white supremacists

Twitter has started looking into whether its belief that keeping white supremacists on its platform is a good idea is, in fact, a good idea. According to Motherboard, Twitter has begun researching whether its platform is actually useful for de-radicalization, as part of an inquiry into whether it should ban white supremacists from the site or allow them to remain and, theoretically, thoughtfully engage with others about their intolerant beliefs and recognize their mistakes.

“Is it the right approach to de-platform these individuals? Is the right approach to try and engage with these individuals? How should we be thinking about this? What actually works?” Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s legal chief, said in a conversation with Motherboard.

To answer these questions, Twitter is working with academics to study how its platform is used and whether its theory about de-radicalization actually holds up. It’s a stunning question to be researching now, 13 years after the company was founded and after years of reports on how white supremacists have taken advantage of social media to grow their audiences. Twitter is also fond of saying it’ll fix things and then making extremely slow and small changes, so this approach makes a lot of sense in that light.

Motherboard spoke to a number of researchers who seem perplexed by Twitter’s inaction and skeptical of its late response. You can read the full details in their report.

Twitter said that none of this is really new in a statement emailed to The Verge that, in full, is longer than this entire article was when initially published. A spokesperson said Twitter is “constantly” looking at academic research and has various partnerships to study the platform’s effects on society and craft policies around hateful content.

The spokesperson also seemed to confirm Motherboard’s description of its inquiry into the effects of keeping white supremacists on the platform. “Expressing an idea and talking about it is different than directing it at an individual. That is why we want to better understand the impact of the former behavior and how it plays out on and off Twitter,” the spokesperson said.

Update May 29th, 4:20PM ET: This story has been updated to include comment from Twitter.