Global Courant
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said this week it would no longer be posting on Twitter after website moderators ignored requests to remove a deluge of bigoted and hateful comments left under a post about employees working the West. attended Hollywood Pride Parade.
The offices account tweeted a photo of about two dozen employees holding gay pride flags after marching in the annual parade on Sunday. Both George Gascón’s gay chief of staff Joseph Iniguez and communications director Tiffiny Blacknell were shown in the image.
Among the 90 comments to the tweet were those who called the employees photographed “pedophiles” or “groomers”, as well as grotesque images of deformed male genitalia and, in one case, a swastika.
Blacknell said the office reported some of the hateful comments to Twitter but received no response.
“The Pride Parade post was met with a barrage of cruel and abusive comments that deeply alarmed us. The comments ranged from homophobic and transphobic slurs to sexually explicit and graphic images, and even after being reported on Twitter, they remained visible on our account for more than 24 hours,” she said in a statement to The Times. “The district attorney’s office will not be complicit and use a platform that promotes such hateful rhetoric.”
The office will continue to have a presence on Instagram and TikTok, according to Blacknell.
The incident is a cross-section of recent controversies. Pride-related events have met with violent and extreme backlash across the country this month, including viral videos of men filming themselves vandalizing pro-LGBTQ+ displays in Target stores, as well as recent brawls outside a North Hollywood school and a school board meeting in Glendale.
While some of the local backlash has been based around the idea of keeping teachings about sex and gender identity out of the classroom, heated rhetoric has also devolved into outright bigotry, with some people at the events confusing gay and transgender lifestyles with pedophilia. Members of the far-right Proud Boys organization — which played a key role in the January 6, 2021 uprising — were also spotted at the Glendale protest.
Concerns that Twitter is becoming a hotbed for bigoted rhetoric and disinformation was part of a wave of worry that began to flow after Tesla CEO Elon Musk bought the platform last year. Musk’s administration has been marked by embarrassment, including the failed rollout of a paid verification program and the failed launch of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ bid for the Republican presidential nomination, which crashed repeatedly.
One of the site’s top executives quit earlier this month because of the website’s treatment of transgender topics.
In response to a question from The Times, Twitter’s media account automatically generated a poop emoji, which is an official policy Musk himself announced this in March.
A number of celebrities have retired from Twitter since Musk took over, including Hall of Fame professional wrestler Mick Foley and actress Whoopi Goldberg.
