Leading members of the Mexican drug cartels are using Twitter to recruit new members, send warnings to rival gangs, post gory images and videos, and glorify the narco lifestyle. Some of these accounts were banned by Twitter’s security team between 2012 and 2015, but have been reinstated since Elon Musk bought the company last year.
These are the conclusions of a new report released Thursday by the Alliance to Counter Crime Online, a coalition of organizations that investigate crimes online, including drug trafficking, child sexual abuse and romance scams. Now, the ACCO calls on Twitter to block and remove drug content and once again suspend the accounts that spread it.
The group’s report comes days after the Gulf of Mexico cartel delicate two of the four US citizens who had been kidnapped after the Americans crossed the border. On Thursday, the poster reportedly apologized for his actions.
“Social media is a tool that provides benefits and strengthens drug cartels by improving organizational and operational capabilities,” report author Dr. Nilda Garcia, an assistant professor in the department of political science, told BuzzFeed News. from Texas A&M International University. “These media outlets provide great opportunities for drug cartels to not only engage in public relations strategies, gain legitimacy, incite fear and recruit, but also facilitate the diversification of criminal activities involving extortion, drug sales and human trafficking online.
Some of the cartel images appear to violate Twitter’s policies on violent content. A video posted by a member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, headed by Nemesio Oseguera, one of the world’s most wanted drug lords, shows decapitated heads of members of the rival cartel being thrown into a bonfire. Another tweet posted by a member of La Chapisa, a faction of the Sinaloa cartel, shows a victim being scalped.
According to the report, under Musk’s leadership, Twitter’s efforts to remove this content and block these accounts have diminished. Some of Musk’s actions, such as firing more than 70% of Twitter employees, including the content moderators responsible for keeping the platform safe, have worsened the problem, according to the report.
“Twitter should not provide a platform for members of the Mexican cartel to spread hate and incite violence,” ACCO executive director Gretchen Peters told BuzzFeed News in an interview. “We are asking them to look at the problem and really take a closer look at it.”
Twitter, which reportedly no longer has a press department, did not respond to a request for comment from BuzzFeed News.
Extremists and other bad actors have flourished under Musk’s leadership, as thousands of previously banned accounts were reinstated, including those of far-right figures like MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and former Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon. . Earlier this year, Twitter sparked outrage after permitted Taliban members to buy blue check marks for their accounts. (Twitter remote checkmarks for these accounts soon after.)
Unlike the Taliban, drug cartel members have yet to buy blue checks, according to the report’s findings. Garcia said he suspects this is because the gang members don’t want to attract more attention and potentially be removed from the platform again. “The use of social networks can be a double-edged sword for them,” he said. “They have learned not to be so vulnerable and not attract more attention from the authorities.”
Since the cartel accounts are not officially verified, determining their authenticity was challenging. To determine if the accounts were legitimate, Garcia said, he looked for signs of association with other cartel accounts. He also examined the geographic location of the accounts in question.
The author of a book called War against drugs in Mexico and criminal networks: the dark side of social networksGarcia is an expert on the Sinaloa Cartel, which she says has a strong presence on Twitter. She estimated that on the platform the cartel reached more than 140 million people from nearly a dozen countries, including the US, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico. “They have a wide fan base,” she said.
