Twitter CEO Elon Musk has come under fire for amplifying false and misleading claims on his social network in recent months, while his supporters allege the mogul is only “asking questions” or “challenging the traditional narrative.”
Musk, who has the most-followed account on the platform, is usually cautious about the wording of his tweets, but he does interact with prominent American right-wing accounts, including some known for sharing false information.
The BBC fact-finding team has analyzed some of the false theories and inflammatory statements on Twitter that Musk has commented on in recent months.
shooting in texas
Musk has repeatedly questioned evidence that the suspect in a recent shooting at a Texas shopping mall had neo-Nazi leanings.
The attacker’s accounts on YouTube and the Russian social network Odnoklassniki were first discovered by the open-system investigative group Bellingcat, which featured photos of swastika tattoos, a violent long will and a meme mentioning “Latino children” and the phrase “become into a white supremacist.”
Those accounts were also independently scrutinized by the BBC and other journalists, with police saying the attacker “had neo-Nazi ideas”, although his motives for killing eight people remain under investigation.
However, Musk questioned the evidence and, without offering proof, alluded to the fact that Bellingcat was involved in “psychological operations”, or “psyops”, as it is known in English.
Didn’t the story come from @bellingcat, which literally specializes in psychological operations?
I don’t want to hurt their feelings, but this is either the weirdest story ever or a very bad psyop!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2023
Psychological operatives are commonly used in war or against hostile foreign countries as a way to provoke an opponent to think or act in a particular way.
But the wild idea that authorities routinely carry out such operations linked to indiscriminate shootings or terrorist attacks to sway public opinion has become a topic in gun-carrying circles in the United States.
Musk has referred to this popular concept of “psyops” several times, including in March, when he vowed to confront the “manipulation of public opinion” on Twitter using artificial intelligence.
In response, Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins called the Twitter owner “an idiot who consumes junk media.” Musk did not respond to requests for comment.
Musk reiterated his assertions in an interview with CNBC last week, saying that Odnoklassniki was a “dark” place that “no one has ever heard of.”
Musk doubles down on his claims that there's no evidence the Allen, Texas mall shooter had white supremacist beliefs, and that @bellingcat "does psy-ops" professionally. pic.twitter.com/60yvbbspYZ
— nikki mccann ramírez (@NikkiMcR) May 16, 2023
But Odnoklassniki is one of the most popular social networks in Russia and the existence of the attacker’s profile on that platform was first revealed by the newspaper. The New York Times, citing police and security sources, before it was discovered by Bellingcat using the platform’s search tool.
The QAnon Shaman
Musk has repeatedly questioned some of the details of the riots on Capitol Hill in Washington on January 6, 2021, but his most controversial remarks came in March, when he seemed to suggest that one of the most well-known participants in the uprising had been wrongly convicted.
On his Twitter account, Musk claimed that Jacob Chansley, the man known as the “QAnon shaman,” sentenced to 41 months in prison, had “received 4 years in prison for a nonviolent (Capitol) tour accompanied by policemen”.
The remarks were based on a short video showing Chansely walking down the halls of Congress flanked by police officers, which aired on former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s show.
However, other actions by Chansley on January 6, 2021 were also caught on camera. He is seen repeatedly refusing police orders to leave the compound and was filmed yelling inside the Senate chamber.
Chansely was charged with six federal crimes and signed a guilty plea, accepting the charge of obstruction of an official proceeding as “true and certain.”
Attack on Paul Pelosi
Musk also came under fire last year after sharing unsubstantiated statements following the attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of then-Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, at his residence by a man he had promoted. a variety of far-right conspiracy theories.
A fake story about the attack that went viral suggested that Pelosi, 82, and her attacker David DePape, 42, were in a gay relationship and had gotten into a drunken fight.
Although highly extreme, the claim began to gain a following in the US after Musk tweeted a website article putting forward the same theory.
The website Musk linked to has a history of publishing misleading news, including a 2016 article that claimed Hillary Clinton was dead.
Contrary to the other examples, Musk later deleted the tweet and apologized for the mistake.
George Soros
Also in Musk’s crosshairs recently has been billionaire George Soros, whose funding of liberal and progressive causes through his philanthropic foundation has made him the ogre of conservatives and right-wing activists.
Musk argued that Soros “wants to erode the very fabric of civilization” and that he “hates humanity.” Three days before those statements, Soros’s investment fund announced that he had sold his shares in Tesla, Musk’s electric car company.
You assume they are good intentions. They are not. He wants to erode the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 16, 2023
Musk compared Soros to Magneto, the character from the Marvel fantasy series who, like the real-life Soros, survived the Holocaust.
The tweets drew condemnation from the Anti-Defamation League, the main advocacy group for Jews in the United States, and the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
However, Musk denied that his comments were anti-Semitic, telling CNBC: “If I’m anything, it’s pro-Semitic.”
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See original article on BBC