What will happen to Twitter under Elon Musk? Will the Tesla honcho be a benevolent leader, keeping it free of Nazis and other dangerous folks? Or will he take his free speech absolutism to ridiculous lengths and drive all the nice people away? Judging from his first days in power, it’s not looking good. Soon as he took the reins, slurs and misinformation skyrocketed. Now Musk himself is adding fuel to an already raging fire
As caught by The Daily Beast, Musk responded to a tweet Hillary Clinton had written condemning the toxic rhetoric that may have caused the attempted murder of Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul. Since the attack, those on the right haven’t offered much in the way of self-reflection. Instead some have spread baseless conspiracy theories in an attempt to deflect blame. Musk got in on those shenanigans.
https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1586702056487796737
“There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye,” Musk tweeted Sunday morning. He also shared a link to a piece from online conservative site Santa Monica Observer, which alleges that Paul Pelosi was actually having a liaison with a male sex worker. The post has since been taken down.
This particular conspiracy has been — surprise surprise — popular among the far right, even if it requires painful attempts to explain away such factors as the broken window and 911 call. Meanwhile, this particular conservative rag has previously shared such tinfoil claims that Hillary Clinton sent a body double to debate Donald Trump in 2016 and that Kanye West has a big time government job.
Hours later, Musk deleted his tweet. But the damage had already been done, with it receiving thousands of shares. That such a scurrilous link had been shared by the new owner of a social media service notorious for the dissemination of misinformation is not exactly reassuring. But hey, it was fun while it lasted.
(Via The Daily Beast)