Prominent members of Mexican drug cartels use 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 from 2012 to 2015, but have since been reinstated after Elon Musk bought the company last year.
Those are the findings of a new report released Thursday by the Alliance to Combat Online Crime, a coalition of organizations that investigates online crimes including drug trafficking, child sexual abuse, and romance scams. Now, ACCO is calling on Twitter to block and remove NARCO content and once again suspend accounts that spread it.
The group’s report comes days after the Gulf of Mexico cartel killed two of four American citizens they had kidnapped after the Americans crossed the border. On Thursday, the cartel reportedly apologized for its actions.
“Social media is a tool that benefits and empowers drug cartels by enhancing organizational and operational capabilities,” report author Dr. Nilda Garcia, an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Texas A&M International University, told BuzzFeed News. “These communication outlets provide great opportunities for drug cartels to not only engage in public relations strategies, gain legitimacy, instill fear, and recruit, but also facilitate the diversification of criminal activities related to extortion, drug trafficking, and human smuggling online.”
Some of the cartel images appear to violate Twitter’s policy on violent content. One video, posted by a member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, led by Nemesio Oseguera, one of the world’s most notorious drug lords, shows the decapitated leaders of rival cartel members being thrown into a bonfire. Another tweet, posted by a member of La Chapisa, a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, shows a victim.
The report says that under Musk’s leadership, Twitter’s efforts to remove this content and block these accounts have waned. Some of Musk’s actions — such as firing more than 70% of Twitter employees, including content moderators responsible for keeping the platform safe — have worsened the problem, the report says.
“Twitter should not be providing a platform for Mexican cartel members to spread their hatred and incite violence,” ACCO CEO Gretchen Peters told BuzzFeed News. “We’re asking them to look into the issue and really look into this more thoroughly.”
Twitter, which reportedly no longer has a press department, did not respond to BuzzFeed News’ request for comment.
Extremists and other bad actors have flourished under Musk, with thousands of previously banned accounts being reinstated, including those of right-wing figures like Mypillow CEO Mike Lindell and former Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon. Earlier this year, Twitter sparked outrage after it allowed members of the Taliban to purchase Blue Verification for their accounts. (Twitter removed those accounts shortly after.)
Unlike the Taliban, members of drug cartels have yet to purchase blue checks, the report’s findings show. Garcia said she suspects that’s because gang members don’t want to attract more attention and potentially be taken down again. “The use of social media can be a double-edged sword for them,” she said. “They’ve learned how to not be so vulnerable and not attract more attention from authorities.”
Because cartel accounts are not officially verified, determining their authenticity was a challenge. To determine whether the accounts were legitimate, Garcia said, she looked for signs of association with other cartel accounts. She also checked the geographic locations of the accounts in question.
The author of a book called Mexico’s Drug War and Criminal Networks: The Dark Side of Social Media, Garcia is an expert on the Sinaloa Cartel, which she says has a strong presence on Twitter. She estimates that the cartel has reached more than 140 million people on the platform in nearly a dozen countries, including the United States, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico. “They have a huge fan base,” she said.
