Elon Musk responds to LeBron James' tweet about 'scary AF' racial slurs on Twitter

Twitter says associated accounts are 'inauthentic,' part of 'trolling campaign' and will be banned

Elon Musk, the new "Chief Twit" at social media giant Twitter, has responded to LeBron James’ concerns about the reported sudden increase in racial slurs being posted on the social media platform.

Musk, who recently acquired Twitter in a $44 billion deal, replied to James on Sunday with a retweet of the response of the company’s head of safety and integrity, Yoel Roth, regarding the reported surge in slurs and derogatory terms posted on the site.

Roth wrote that the increase came over the last 48 hours from "a small number" of accounts posting "a ton of tweets."

"More than 50,000 Tweets repeatedly using a particular slur came from just 300 accounts," Roth tweeted.

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"Nearly all of these accounts are inauthentic," Roth continued. "We’ve taken action to ban the users involved in this trolling campaign — and are going to continue working to address this in the days to come to make Twitter safe and welcoming for everyone."

LeBron James smiling with mic

LeBron James tweeted that he was concerned over the reported surge in racial sluts on Twitter following Elon Musk's acquisition. (Jason Miller/Getty Images, File / Getty Images)

The NBA superstar had tweeted his concern over the reports on Saturday, writing that he hopes Musk and Twitter "take this very seriously."

On Friday, Musk reiterated that Twitter’s policies have yet to change since he took control, writing: "To be super clear, we have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies."

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Elon Musk

Musk has shared that Twitter's policies regarding its content moderation have not changed. Twitter's head of safety and integrity said the accounts were inauthentic and would be banned as the company works to keep Twitter safe and welcoming for all u (REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo / Reuters Photos)

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The Network Contagion Research Institute says, "Evidence suggests that bad actors are trying to test the limits on @Twitter. Several posts on 4chan encourage users to amplify derogatory slurs."