Twitter has been going through a lot of changes ever since Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion two weeks ago. With Musk being a “free speech” advocate, this seemingly leaves a lot of room for hate speech on the social media platform. Seth Rogen, who has a role in Steven Spielberg’s latest masterpiece The Fabelmans, has stopped tweeting due to “antisemitic vitriol” he dealt with on Twitter.
Free speech is a right, but it can also make way for hate speech on social media outlets like Twitter. Jewish actor Seth Rogen spoke to Uproxx about the reason he hasn’t been tweeting much lately and if it has anything to do with Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover.
No, not really [it didn’t have to do with Elon Musk]. Honestly, there was just a day last week where I was like, ‘Oh, I received more antisemitic vitriol on Twitter than I had in the past decade combined,’ and I was just like, ‘I don’t need to deal with this right now.'
It’s always a tragedy to see people marginalizing a specific group of people. It can make anyone want to turn away from following a specific account or quietly walk away from the platform altogether if they see more hate than good. The Washington Post reported a surge of hate speech after Elon Musk’s takeover with the repeated uses of Nazi imagery, the N-word, and anti-LGBTQ+ messages. The Network Contagion Research Institute tweeted that the use of the N-word increased by 500% after Elon Musk’s deal with Twitter was finalized. I believe that without putting a stop to hate, it further incites it.
It can be understandable to want to take a break from social media if there is so much offense and bigotry following the majority of tweets you see. Luckily, the Sausage Party actor has his own method of not letting these antisemitic tweets get to him.
I’ll scroll TikTok for a few days. The good thing is I can just stop looking at it.
Yahoo! Entertainment reported that at a post-premiere Q&A for The Fabelmans at the Toronto International Film Festival where the autobiographical film won the People’s Choice Award, Steven Spielberg spoke about how being bullied due to his faith was a small part of his life. However, it was still significant to include in his movie. The Fabelmans featured unsettling scenes of antisemitism where the filmmaker’s teenage version of himself was taunted with a slur, physically assaulted, and nicknamed “Bagel Man” by teasing students.
This potential Oscar-winning film is hitting theaters during a troubling time in this country where basketball player Kyrie Irving created a controversial media post promoting an antisemitic documentary on Amazon Prime and Kanye West's constantly antisemitic rants took away his billionaire status after businesses deals were cut because of it. A movie like The Fabelmans may not raise awareness of anti-semitism the same way that Spielberg’s Schindler’s List did, but it should hopefully reach out to a new generation of its cruelty.
Seth Rogen will not be the only celebrity out there who slowly steps away from Twitter if hate continues to exist on the platform. You can watch his performance in the newly released movie The Fabelmans in theaters now.
