Prominent members of 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 Online Crime, a coalition of organizations that investigate online crimes, including drug trafficking, child sexual abuse and romance scams. Now, the ACCO calls on Twitter to block and eliminate drug content and to 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 American citizens they had kidnapped after the Americans crossed the border. On Thursday, the poster reportedly He 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 García, an assistant professor in the political science department at Texas A&M International University, told BuzzFeed News. “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 online human trafficking.”
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, led by Nemesio Oseguera, one of the world’s most wanted drug traffickers, shows decapitated heads of members of rival cartels thrown into a bonfire. Another tweet posted by a member of La Chapisa, a faction of the Sinaloa cartel, shows a victim being scalped.
Under Musk’s leadership, according to the report, Twitter’s efforts to remove this content and block these accounts have diminished. Some of Musk’s actions, such as laying off more than 70% of Twitter employees, including content moderators responsible for keeping the platform safe, have made the problem worse, according to the report.
“Twitter should not provide a platform for members of the Mexican cartel to spread their hate and incite violence,” Gretchen Peters, executive director of ACCO, told BuzzFeed News in an interview. “We ask that you study the issue and 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 have been 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 buy blue check marks for their accounts. (Twitter remote check marks on these accounts shortly thereafter).
Unlike the Taliban, drug cartel members have not yet purchased blue checks, according to the report’s conclusions. Garcia said he suspects this is because gang members don’t want to attract more attention and potentially be unseated 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 to attract more attention from the authorities.”
Since cartel accounts are not officially verified, determining their authenticity was a challenge. To determine whether the accounts were legitimate, Garcia said, he looked for signs of association with other cartel accounts. It also examined the geographic location of the accounts in question.
The author of a book called The war on drugs in Mexico and criminal networks: the dark side of social networksGarcía is an expert on the Sinaloa Cartel, which she says has a strong presence on Twitter. He estimated that on the platform the poster reached more than 140 million people from almost a dozen countries, including the United States, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico. “They have a wide fan base,” he said.
