Not even 72 hours have passed since Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and yet US users are already worried about the turn taken by the social network. “The bird is free” followed by a “comedy is now legal on Twitter” were the first chirps of the owner of Space X and Tesla after the acquisition of the company. It was thought that the new course led by Musk would increase disinformation and the lack of moderation of the debate between users within the platform. So it was without even having to wait that long.
Misinformation on the Pelosi case
Hillary Clinton posted on her account the reconstruction made by the Los Angeles Times on the attack suffered by Paul Pelosi, the husband of the Democratic speaker, last Friday morning. The new Twitter CEO has entered the debate by re-sharing the latest article from the ultra-conservative site Santa Monica Observer. “It may be the case that there is more to this story than it seems,” Musk wrote accompanying the article. The piece relaunched by Musk is about an anonymous source who allegedly saw Paul Pelosi in a gay club in San Francisco and that David Depape, Pelosi’s attacker, would actually be a man’s acquaintance. The announcer’s husband was found tied up in her home with Depape. When the police arrived, the kidnapper would simply say: “We’re waiting for Nancy.” The man used to revive theories dear to the Republicans and the world linked to Qanon +, the extreme right-wing political group known for sowing disinformation online and beyond.
Il Santa Monica Observer Instead, he reports that he was a “Castro nudist”, a group of protesters who protested completely naked with rings around the penis. The article reads: «For years there has been a suspicion that Paul Pelosi is gay […] This guy was a Castro nudist and made jewelry in the shape of marijuana. Not the prototype of a pro Trump Republican ». And again: “In the past the police had caught him in a car with a little boy after an accident committed while he was drunk.”
According to the independent fact checking group, Media Bias/Fact Check, the site relaunched by Musk is a “questionable source, given the repetitiveness with which false and misleading news is published”. In reference to the article shared by the CEO of Twitter, he instead emphasized that “it appears as a false and defamatory content”.
The first measures of the Musk era on Twitter
For the moderation of language and content Musk decided to form an internal committee of the company made up of people with very different points of view. Lebron James, star of the Los Angeles Lakers, in reference to the racist language that increasingly clogs the US Twitter message boards, said: “I don’t know Musk, but I hope he takes this trend that already exists very seriously.” From the Twitter cell, however, not only the bird symbol of the social network has been released, but so will all those who had been expelled from the platform. Among them also the former President of the United States, Donald Trump, who from his page on Truth Social, where he moved once expelled from Twitter, said he was “I am very happy that the social network has passed into the hands of a person healthy “. Among the first decisions taken by Musk there is also the dismissal of many company executives and the temporary suspension of advertising banners, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Il New York Times instead he focused on two other aspects: the rebirth of accounts that sowed fake news and the fact that in view of the Midterms on November 8, there were many Republican candidates to acquire new followers immediately after the acquisition of the platform by Musk. One in particular, Kari Lake, a candidate for the role of governor in Arizona, in the hours following the handover saw her followers increase by 18,000. The candidate of the Gop in recent weeks he has dusted off Trump’s attitude after his defeat in the 2020 elections: «I will win the elections. That is the only result I will accept ». She then refused to say openly if she would acknowledge the opponent’s victory. In short, if you needed further confirmation of the weld between pro Trump candidates, disinformation and social media.
Buying the platform hadn’t left everyone satisfied though. In the hours following Musk’s rise, the #Twittermigration hashtag had gone into trend, with many users who decided to abandon ship to other digital shores. In particular, the change of course has favored new applications such as Discord e Mastodon.
In the last few hours, then, the new «Chief Twit»as he calls himself Musk, he decided to make things even more difficult for the platform transition, sowing misinformation and leaving those still waiting in hope disillusioned.