The Cube | How Elon Musk has increased misinformation on Twitter

When Elon Musk took over Twitter in October last year, the billionaire promised to make the platform the “most accurate source of information about the world.” “That is our mission,” he said.

But, according to an AFP analysis, he has repeatedly shared false claims from some of the biggest disinformation accounts on the platform.

Last week, Elon Musk called out a tweet from the “KaneokaTheGreat” account that wrongly suggested that doctors are misdiagnosing flu cases as COVID-19 deaths.

Musk responded to the tweet by saying, “Good question.” This account has repeatedly spread misinformation and promoted QAanon conspiracy theories. QAnon followers believe that politicians and famous Satan worshipers run the world while engaging in pedophilia and human trafficking.

On January 6, 2021, supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the United States Capitol in Washington, DC Many of them were supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which saw Trump as a hero who would defeat a worshiping global cabal. of Satan.

According to AFP, this was one of at least 40 times that Elon Musk responded to this profile called “KaneokaTheGreat” since he bought Twitter.

Musk also shared a post falsely blaming the mass shootings in the US on LGBTQ people.

It also spread another post falsely claiming that former French President François Hollande admitted that the West overthrew the Ukrainian government during the Maidan Revolution in 2013.

Euronews fact-checked these claims and we found that Hollande never said that during this interview in question or previously.

In October 2022, an intruder attacked Paul Pelosi, the husband of then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with a hammer during a burglary.

Elon Musk shared an article claiming the attack was an altercation stemming from a drunken sexual encounter with a prostitute.

But this is false. Police body camera footage was released and Musk deleted his tweet and apologized.

According to experts, Musk’s activity is worrying. Musk has more than 135 million followers on Twitter and has forced the platform’s engineers to increase the reach of his posts.

In recent days there has been an increase in disinformation on Twitter, public figures and government organizations have lost their Twitter blue verification, which has led to the appearance of copycat and fraudulent accounts.

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