Los Angeles district attorney's office quits Twitter due to barrage of 'vicious' homophobic attacks

The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office announced Thursday that it had left Twitter because of the barrage of vicious' homophobic comments which were not removed even after being reported.

The account that used the handle URL no longer exists on Twitter.

The office released a statement saying that the decision to archive its Twitter account was not taken lightly. It was a result of a number of disturbing comments made over time. The culmination came in the form a shocking reaction to photos we posted, celebrating LADA's entry into its first Pride parade.

The post on the Pride Parade was met by "a barrage" of abusive and offensive comments, which left them deeply disturbed.

The office stated that the comments included slurs such as 'homophobic' and 'transphobic', and sexually explicit images. They also noted that the comments were still visible on the account in the replies more than 24 hour after the tweets.

Twitter's new CEO Linda Yaccarino, who started Monday, didn't respond to any messages for comments. Multiple advocacy groups claim that attacks on LGBTQ+ users increased significantly since Elon Musk became CEO of Twitter last fall.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate has identified, for example, 1.7 million tweets, retweets, and other social media posts since 2022, that include the LGBTQ+ community using keywords such as "LGBT," "gay," homosexual,' or trans,' along with slurs like groomer,"predator, and a pedophile. In the months leading up to Musk's takeover, there were 3,011 tweets per day on average. This number jumped 119%, to 6,596, in the four-month period following Musk's takeover.

The drastic staff cuts Musk made since his takeover are a big reason. There simply aren't enough content moderators who can handle the floods of tweets that include hate speech, graphic material and harassment. Musk also describes himself as a "free-speech absoluteist" who believes Twitter’s previous policies are too restrictive.

Twitter, for example, quietly removed in April a policy that prohibited the "targeted misgendering of transgender people or the deadnaming thereof," raising fears about the platform becoming less safe. Musk has repeatedly interacted with figures on the far right and spread misinformation to his 143,000,000 followers.

Ella Irwin resigned as Twitter's director of trust and security last week after Musk criticised Twitter's handling tweets regarding a documentary by a conservative media outlet that questions the medical treatment of transgender teens and children. Musk sent the video to his followers, saying that "Every parent should see this."

The American Medical Association and every other major medical association have opposed the bans on gender affirming care, but supported medical care for children when it is administered properly. In several states, where the bans were enacted in this year, lawsuits have already been filed.

The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office said Thursday that it will continue to be active on mainstream social media websites such as Facebook and LinkedIn but that it would not use Twitter because it is a platform which promotes hateful rhetoric.