Mon. Dec 23rd, 2024
Elon Musk Tells X Users To Follow Accounts Known For

As misinformation about the fast-moving war between Gaza’s militants and Israel spread on social media platform X over the weekend, owner Elon Musk, personally notorious for promoting lies, Encouraged users to follow the account.

“@WarMonitors and @sentdefender are the best places to follow war in real time,” Musk posted Sunday morning to his 150 million follower accounts on the platform formerly known as Twitter. . The post was viewed 11 million times in three hours and drew appreciation from those two accounts before Musk deleted it.

Both men were among the most important early proponents of the false claim that there had been an explosion near the White House in May. Before this story was debunked, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 85 points at one point.

Emerson T. Brooking, a researcher at the Atlantic Council Digital Forensics Research Lab, posted that @sentdefender is an “absolutely toxic account.” They regularly post false and unverifiable things and try to increase the number of paying subscribers by inserting random edits. ”

The War Monitor account has debated Israel and religion with others. Post A year ago, he said, “the vast majority of people in the media and banks are Zionists.” tell June’s correspondent was there to “go worship the Jew’s Lil Brother.”

Intelligence researchers said the new conflict was an early test of how the revamped X would convey accurate data in a major crisis, and the immediate impression was poor.

“There’s a lot of anecdotal evidence that X fails this stress test,” said Mike Caulfield, a researcher at the University of Washington Center for Public Information. “Get on the platform and search for Israel or Gaza. You won’t have to scroll far to find questionable or debunked information.”

Mr. Musk left replies to two accounts he promoted, each with more than 600,000 followers and increased visibility. He also went on to slam the “mainstream media” and told users to trust X instead.

Other X accounts have brought up photos and videos of unrelated attacks from years ago, as well as false claims that Iran and others have joined the conflict.

Ann account It imitated the Jerusalem Post and falsely reported that the Israeli prime minister had been taken to the hospital, garnering more than 700,000 views.

Many accounts promoted fake documents that said the White House had approved $8 billion in aid to Israel. Some people have posted videos of buildings collapsing in Syria in the past. Said They were in Gaza.

A spokesperson for Company X did not respond to an email seeking comment.

X and other real-time information sources are particularly susceptible to rumors, false claims, and propaganda during major events.

Researchers say X’s credibility has fallen significantly since Musk took power nearly a year ago. He ended the practice of giving “verified” checks to established media accounts, stopped labeling some accounts as government-affiliated, and rewarded views rather than accuracy to attract high engagement. I started sending money to my account.

A recent study published by the European Commission concluded that Russian propaganda about the Ukraine war reached more people on X this year than last year.

“There is a financial incentive for people who pay blue checks to LARP.” [live action role-play] They dig up old stories and fake footage to act like war reporters,” Brooking wrote. “Elon Musk makes this possible.”

Musk said last week that he would change the way articles are shared by removing headlines and promoting only photos, which experts said would reduce traffic to news sites.

Mr. Musk has also contributed to a wide-ranging legal and political campaign to quell some academics and research groups that track misinformation by accusing them of promoting unconstitutional censorship. succeeded in. He plans to sue the Anti-Defamation League over a report by the Anti-Defamation League showing an increase in anti-Semitic posts about Company X since Musk acquired it last October. Threatened me.

Biden administration officials did not immediately respond to questions about whether they are working with social media companies to identify misinformation. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, one of the government agencies targeted by Musk and some Republicans, referred questions to the State Department, which monitors foreign disinformation.

Officials there did not respond to inquiries. The White House also did not respond to emails.