With help from its owner, X has become overrun with misinformation related to the war between Israel and Hamas — giving us a window into how the site we all once knew as Twitter might be used to sow confusion and manipulate the masses when future global events occur.
On Sunday, as the conflict in the Middle East was accelerating, Elon Musk — X’s owner and a conspiracy theorist in his own right — recommended that users follow two accounts that are notorious for spreading misinformation.
But that’s not all. Progressive watchdog Media Matters detailed the storm of false and misleading information that Musk and his platform has been fueling. The outlet wrote:
As the terrorist organization Hamas launched surprise attacks on Israel, Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) had its first test amid a global crisis. The platform failed spectacularly, with misinformation proliferating as paid verified accounts spread misleading videos, a doctored photo, and other misinformation. Additionally, accounts on X impersonated a news outlet and another official entity, and Musk himself endorsed and interacted with accounts that spread misinformation.
One of the posts included video game footage passed off as actual war footage. The posts, which have received millions of views, have included false claims about military activity on both sides of the conflict.
During wartime especially, it’s easy to see how this can inflame an already tense situation.
At this point, I think anyone still using X with hopes it can be redeemed does so at their own peril. To think that the platform “failed” its first test amid a global crisis is to assume that its leadership wants the platform to be a source of reputable information — an assumption none of us should feel comfortable making about a Musk-led company.
In fact, we have ample reason to believe Musk is delighted by the falsities he and his site have propped up. The self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” (who falls far short of that moniker in reality) has made content moderation his cause célèbre and, as owner, has made the platform more tolerant of bigotry and demonstrably false allegations.
At this point, I think anyone still using X with hopes it can be redeemed does so at their own peril.
And recent moves of his suggest an eagerness to incite chaos. He has attacked and sued civil rights organizations, like the Center for Countering Digital Hate and the Anti-Defamation League, blaming them for lost advertising revenue. He also recently announced that X will no longer display headlines for news stories. Musk has said the move will enhance aesthetics, but experts have noted that the result — decreased user engagement — fits Musk’s pattern of targeting reputable sources of information.
I shudder to think about what X’s remaining users and advertisers will need to see to convince them the platform is too far gone to be saved — evidently, seeing it used as a tool for warmongering isn’t going to do the trick.
But I advise them to keep their eyes peeled. The past few days have been a test of sorts, an experiment in how a Musk-led information ecosystem operates in a time of crisis.
The results have been disturbing. And with Elon Musk in charge, I suspect there’s more where that came from.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.