Elon Musk is the owner of X, the app formerly known as Twitter. He is also its most popular user, with 193.4 million followers. Both premises are true, and may be interrelated. In February 2023, Musk forced Twitter programmers to alter the service’s algorithm so that his tweets would appear more prominently on the feed. feed of users. There are subforums on the Reddit platform of users complaining about seeing too many tweets from Elon Musk. A problem, because he has become the main vehicle for disinformation in the US electoral campaign, and it is impossible to know what else he promotes in a shadowy way on X.
So far in the campaign, Musk has suggested that the Democratic Party plans to commit voter fraud. That he is “going to import votes” and that Democrats “don’t deport anyone because every illegal is a likely future vote” (Biden has deported 3.6 million immigrants). He has also cast doubt on the integrity of electronic voting and mail-in voting, arguing that machines can be “rigged” to prevent fraud. hacked by humans or by AI [Inteligencia Artificial]” and that “mail-in voting and secure ballot boxes should not be allowed” with a Fox video talking about how easy it is to vote illegally.
She has shared AI-made fake videos of Kamala Harris, knowing them to be fake. In one she said: “I am a woman and a person of color, so if you criticize anything I say, you are sexist and racist.” She has described her as a ““extinctionist” capable of causing a “holocaust for all humanity.” At the same time, five states accuse him of sharing false electoral information, including some data on voting deadlines, and numerous pro-Kamala Harris accounts have been labeled as spam or suspended by the system, including accounts dedicated to campaign fundraising, such as Progressives for Harris either White Dudes for HarrisAccording to a recent report by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, a British NGO dedicated to investigating hate campaigns, Musk has published at least 50 posts containing misinformation about the campaign so far this year, and they have been viewed more than 1.2 billion times.
How to make money spreading hate
Donald Trump is just one of the many leaders, ringleaders or influencers far-right activists who have returned to the platform after being banned for inciting violence or distributing fake news about Covid or an election result. In this return, many have been quietly favored by recent changes to X’s recommendation algorithm. Those who have been “verified” with a tick Blue has special privileges, including more visibility, promotion of posts, and immunity from moderation. It also allows monetization of virality.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate says X allows its “blue” users to spread hate with impunity and make money doing it. It estimates that just 10 of the extremist accounts reinstated by Musk have brought in as much as $19 million. [unos 17,4 millones de euros] advertising through 2.5 billion tweets. Accounts like Andrew Tate’s, the influencer sexist, racist and homophobic accused of sexual assault and exploitation, and the American Andrew Anglin, founder of the neo-Nazi conspiracy website The Daily Stormer.
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Launched as an alleged system to eradicate fake accounts, X grants verifications in a non-transparent way; sometimes for money, sometimes for the number of followers, sometimes for alleged media relevance. Sometimes even against the will of the user himself, who can rename his account with a “non consensual tick [tick no consensuado]The European Commission has already warned X that its verification system breaches the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas related to dark patterns, advertising transparency and access to data for research.
During racist protests in the UK, Musk has personally amplified fake news from far-right activists such as Tommy Robinson, founder of the now-violent English Defence League, currently in Cyprus. His content has been viewed 434 million times since the riots began, including an illegal documentary in which he falsely blames Muslims for various crimes and calls for mass deportations. He has also shared a post by Ashlea Simon, co-leader of the white supremacist party Britain First, with the (fake) masthead of The Daily Telegraphsaying that protesters arrested during the riots would be sent to detention centres in the Falkland Islands. Musk deleted it 15 minutes later, when it already had a million views. He has also announced the inevitability of a civil war.
Last June, it privatized the likesso that only the author of a message can see who “likes” their post. “Many people are discouraged from ‘liking’ content that could be ‘controversial’ for fear of retaliation from trolls, or to protect their public image,” she explained. Users can now vote on sexist, racist and classist posts, making them more viral without punishing their reputation. It also ensures more opacity to the system. It is no longer possible to see whether a news story has been popularised genuinely or artificially, by an army of bots.
Power without transparency
The committee’s report on the Capitol assault says a single tweet was capable of provoking it. It said: “Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 election. Large demonstration in [Washington] DC on January 6th. Come, it’s going to be wild!” In that context, one might wonder what influence the only user capable of modifying the service to ensure his and his friends’ visibility is having on the election campaign. Unfortunately, Musk has also restricted researchers and academics from accessing the API. [interfaz de programación de aplicaciones] and forensic analysis tools, blocking the work of groups working to prevent racist campaigns and disinformation on-line.
Why did he buy Twitter in October 2022? Financially, it has not been a good deal. In the first six months of his reign, revenue fell by almost 40%. The value of the shares has fallen by 71%. Musk has sued the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), a voluntary initiative that brings together a hundred advertisers to promote responsibility in the media, because its members have stopped advertising on X for amplifying anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Anti-Semitic content has doubled on X from June 2022 to February 2023.
“Just when I thought I was out, they bring me back in,” he tweeted as he finally announced he would buy the company for $44 billion, burying a lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court for wanting to back out of the original acquisition agreement. It’s a quote from Michael Corleone, in The Godfather III. Shortly afterwards, he would be seen in a box at the Lusail Stadium in Qatar watching the World Cup final with Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and a host of interesting people. Mansoor Bin Ebrahim Al Mahmoud, CEO of the Qatar Investment Authority, one of the many Arab investors in the purchase of Twitter; Lakshmi Mittal, president of the world’s largest steel company; Nailya Asker-Zade, Russian television presenter and girlfriend of banker Andrei Kostin, supposed head of Putin’s piggy bank; and Sebastian Kurz, former Christian Democrat chancellor of Austria, hired as a “global strategist” at Thiel Capital, the company of billionaire Peter Thiel.
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