Elon Musk has a disinformation problem

Hey, this is Angelo Paura and welcome to this new edition of It’s Not True, our weekly newsletter about disinformation and false narratives.

Following months of speculation and hearsay, October 2022 saw Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion. Under Musk's ownership, Twitter underwent a metamorphosis and became "X," the new hotspot for conspiracy theories, misinformation, and false news. The changes were jaw-dropping: Musk axed the fact-checking team, lifted bans on extremist accounts, silenced critical journalists, and removed warning labels from government-backed accounts, including Russia and China. As an example, RT, a media outlet funded by the Russian government, sported a verified account with a bio declaring "freedom over censorship." ??

The result? A surge in hate speech, harassment, trolling, and a wave of false information on a platform once known for its strict anti-misinformation policies. A study from Science Feedback and the International Fact-Checking Network shows that under Musk’s ownership, disinformation superspreaders had a 44% bump in engagement on the platform.

Now, in a two-episode special, we're peeling back the layers to understand how we got here.

• This week David Mazzucchi delves into the seminal false news that Musk has spread in the past few years, including COVID, QAnon and white supremacist conspiracy theories (some of which he has since walked back).

• We also have our weekly roundup written by Bruno Fuschini with a debunking of the most shared false news about the Israel-Hamas war.

Let’s start ??!?

??But first, don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter

??And please check our Fake News Channel

News junkies and headline scanners alike probably already have a sense of Elon Musk’s propensity for sharing fake news.? While each instance might elicit a baffled scoff or an eye-roll, it’s worth looking at Musk’s tweets, retweets, and comments as a body of work – a magnum opus of degrading a platform’s credibility, from the guy who now owns it.??

???? What pandemic? Elon Musk hit the ground running when it came to COVID-19 misinformation, tweeting on March 19, 2020, that “children are essentially immune” to the virus. Twitter had indeed just amended its policy a few days prior, using a nearly-identical statement as an example of what would no longer be allowed, but the platform did not remove his tweet, saying it wasn’t “definitive.” Musk would go on to publicly oppose lockdowns and cast doubt on vaccinations. In March of this year, the now-owner of X (formerly Twitter) used his platform again to warn that countries negotiating a new pandemic treaty should not “cede sovereignty to the WHO,” prompting a swift response from WHO chief Tedros Adhanom: "It's fake news. Countries will decide what the accord says."

???? Don’t believe your lying eyes Musk also has a long track record when it comes to instances of right-wing political violence, promoting conspiracies that negate political motivation or deny violence altogether.?

• After Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, was brutalized with a hammer by a right-wing extremist who was after her, Elon Musk posted a link to a well-known fake news site claiming that this whole story was a setup, and that Mr. Pelosi was actually in a drunken fight with a male prostitute.
• In May of this year, Musk promoted a tweet claiming that the mass shooter who murdered eight people in Allen, Texas, was not actually a white supremacist, calling it “the weirdest story ever or a bad psyop!” The shooter had nazi tattoos and a profile on an extremist social media site. When Tucker Carlson, then Fox News’s prime time pundit, aired a heavily edited and misleading video of the Capitol rioters and claimed they were not violent, Twitter’s new owner aided in the propaganda effort, posting in response to the video “This is crazy. The public was misled,” and boosting other right-wing pundits by replying to their posts on the same subject.

????? Fake news without borders The war in Ukraine and the recently-erupted conflict in the Middle East have both been accompanied by deluges of fake news, and as with other important topics, Elon Musk is ready to share first and ask questions later. In February, he responded to a tweet claiming that hundreds of US and British NATO soldiers had been killed since the start of the war, calling it a “tragic loss of life.” While the UK and the US do provide weapons and logistical support to Ukraine, no NATO forces are on the ground there. As violence erupted in Gaza last week, Musk recommended two Twitter profiles “for following the war in real time.” After numerous journalists pointed out that one of those channels regularly posts fake news and antisemitic comments, Musk deleted the tweet and further mentions of the channel.

It’s not true: from Putin warning US about Israel-Hamas war to Qatari emir’s gas threat

? Qatar’s emir has not threatened to cut off gas supply

False claim: Social media users around the world have shared a seven-second video in which the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, allegedly appears, according to the posts, threatening to cut off the supply of natural gas to the world if Israel does not stop bombing Gaza.

?? Read the full fact check here.

?? Video does not show Putin warning US not to interfere in Israel-Hamas war

False claim: Social media users around the world have shared a video of a speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin, alongside the claim that he was warning the United States not to interfere in the war between Israel and Palestine, otherwise he would openly help Palestine.

?? Read the full fact check here.

?? Airport parking lot fire in England was not caused by electric car

False claim: Social media users in Europe have shared a video of a major fire in the parking lot of Luton airport in England, alongside the claim that the fire started in an electric car.

?? Read the full fact check here.

Questions, ideas? Please shoot an email to [email protected] or share your thoughts in the comments. This week It’s not True was written and produced by Angelo Paura , Bruno Fuschini , and David Mazzucchi. Edited by Angelo Paura from New York, David Mazzucchi from Florence. All images ? Blasting News Creative Department.

Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter!?

??https://lnkd.in/eE3naP2Q