Twitter's head of safety and integrity says more than 50,000 tweets containing a 'particular slur' were posted in 48 hours, amid reports of a racist trolling campaign

• Twitter's head of safety and integrity said 300 users posted over 50,000 tweets with a "particular slur" in 48 hours.
• Research showed the use of N-word on Twitter rose by nearly 500% after the takeover deal closed.

A Twitter director has said that thousands of tweets containing a "particular slur" had been posted on the platform within 48 hours.

His comments, posted on Twitter on Saturday evening local time, came amid a racist trolling campaign that occurred after Elon Musk took over the site. Research from the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) on Friday showed that the use of the N-word on Twitter shot up by nearly 500% in the 12 hours after Musk's deal closed on Thursday.

Trolls also posted anti-LGBTQ slurs and sexist comments on the platform, according to The Washington Post.

Yoel Roth, head of safety and integrity at Twitter, wrote in a tweet that the social-media platform's policies on hateful conduct and trolling campaigns haven't changed since Musk became the owner of the company.

"Over the last 48 hours, we've seen a small number of accounts post a ton of Tweets that include slurs and other derogatory terms," Roth tweeted. "To give you a sense of scale: More than 50,000 Tweets repeatedly using a particular slur came from just 300 accounts."

He said the majority of the accounts that tweeted the hateful content were "inauthentic." Twitter has taken steps to ban the accounts involved in the trolling campaign, he added.

Twitter didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside of US operating hours.

Although hateful conduct is prohibited on the site, Twitter doesn't have a list of banned words, Roth said, adding that "context matters" and the company's rules "protect reclaimed speech."

"Hateful conduct has no place here," Roth said. "We're taking steps to put a stop to an organized effort to make people think we have."

Musk said on Friday he would create a content moderation council with "widely diverse viewpoints." The following day he tweeted that Twitter hadn't yet changed its content moderation policies.

After NCRI's research about the use of the N-word increasing on Twitter, basketball player Lebron James said he "could care less who owns Twitter" but hoped Musk would take the situation seriously.