Elon Musk's Twitter Reactivates Mexican Drug Cartel Accounts, Traffickers Using Social Media To Recruit & Intimidate

Prominent members of Mexico's drug cartels are using Twitter to recruit new members, threaten rival gangs, post violent images and videos and glorify drug trafficking, according to an Alliance to Counter Crime Online (ACCO) report. 

What Happened: Between 2012 and 2015, most of these gory accounts were banned by Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council. Then along came Elon Musk, Tesla TSLA and Twitter CEO who, in his righteous defense of the first amendment, dissolved the safety policy and reinstated previously suspended cartel accounts.

A slew of racist screeds and epithets also appeared on Twitter immediately after Musk’s takeover. One epithet used to attack Black people, which shall not be repeated here, was blasted all over Twitter more than 26,000 times within days after Musk bought the platform for $44 billion. 

And now the Mexican cartels are sharing graphic content such as a video posted by a member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel showing decapitated heads of rival gang members being thrown into a bonfire. 

The infamous Rene Arzate Garcia, a member of El Chapo’s Sinaloa cartel, is using his Twitter account to taunt authorities by posting his “Wanted by the FBI” poster as his header image.

ACCO, a non-profit coalition of organizations dedicated to researching online crimes, including drug trafficking, child sexual abuse, and financial romance scams is urging Twitter to block and remove the narco content and suspend accounts promoting it. The organization's report came out several days after four Americans were kidnapped and two murdered by northern Mexico’s Gulf cartel. 

“Social media is a tool that provides benefits to and strengthens drug cartels by enhancing organizational and operational capabilities,” Dr. Nilda Garcia, ACCO report author and political science prof at Texas A&M International University, told BuzzFeed News.

“These communication outlets provide major opportunities for drug cartels not only to engage in public relations strategies, gain legitimacy, incite fear, and recruit, but also facilitate the diversification of criminal activities that involve extortion, drug sales, and human smuggling online,” Garcia said.

Under Musk’s leadership, the report noted, Twitter’s efforts to remove this content and block these accounts have declined. Some of Musk’s actions — like firing over 70% of Twitter’s employees including the content moderators, have exacerbated the problem, according to the report.

Photo: Rene Arzate Garcia's Twitter account