Is this (finally) the end for X? Delicate Musk-Trump relationship and growing rivals spell trouble for platform; The Guardian, November 17, 2024

Siân Boyle , The Guardian; Is this (finally) the end for X? Delicate Musk-Trump relationship and growing rivals spell trouble for platform

"As recently as 2022, Musk tweeted that “for Twitter to deserve public trust, it must be politically neutral, which effectively means upsetting the far right and the far left equally.” He tweeted that “Trump would be 82 at end of his term, which is too old to be chief executive of anything, let alone the United States of America.”

Months later, when Musk bought Twitter for $44bn, he fired content moderators and charged for account verification, which meant people could buy influence. Twitter was rebranded to X, shed millions of users and reinstated Trumps’s account, suspended after the White House insurrection in January 2021.

The proliferation on X of alt-right diatribe, hate speech and bots, as well as Musk’s own clash with the UK government during the riots in August, have led to mounting disquiet among X users. The Guardian and Observer announced last week that their presence on the site was now untenable and they would no longer post. Stephen King, the author, left, saying it had become “too toxic”. Oscar-winners Barbra Streisand and Jamie Lee Curtis have departed the platform.

“X has become effectively Truth Social premium,” said Mark Carrigan, author of Social Media for Academics, referring to Trump’s hard-right social media platform. And the talk in technology circles is that Trump’s Truth Social could be folded into X.

If that happens, whose interests take priority? Would Musk suppress criticism of the authoritarian governments he does business with, or promote it? In the Donald and Elon media show, who is the puppet or paymaster?

“If that happens, it will be the ultimate amplification machine for Trump’s ideas – a political super-app masquerading as social media,” said James Kirkham of Iconic, which advises brands including Uber and EA Sports on digital strategies. “Forget Facebook or Fox News; the true heart of the GOP’s digital strategy could be X.”"

The exodus from X to Bluesky has happened – the era of mass social media platforms is over; The Guardian, November 15, 2024

Gaby Hinsliff, The Guardian; The exodus from X to Bluesky has happened – the era of mass social media platforms is over

"Platforms come and go, but this feels different: the final death of the idea that social media could ever be the internet’s town square, a global meeting place for ideas that would broaden all our horizons. Now, the future of social media looks increasingly segregated for users’ safety, like rival fans at football."

BLUESKY SURGES WITH 700,000 NEW MEMBERS AS USERS FLEE X AFTER US ELECTION; CEO Today, November 12, 2024

CEO Today; BLUESKY SURGES WITH 700,000 NEW MEMBERS AS USERS FLEE X AFTER US ELECTION

"Bluesky Surges with 700,000 New Members as Users Flee X After US Election: A Social Media Revolution in the Making

In the wake of the US election, a quiet revolution has been unfolding in the world of social media. The platform Bluesky has seen a dramatic increase in user growth, with over 700,000 new members joining in just one week following the election results. This surge has propelled Bluesky’s user base to 14.5 million globally, up from 9 million in September. The platform’s meteoric rise is largely attributed to disillusioned social media users seeking a safer, more regulated alternative to X (formerly Twitter), especially after the platform underwent a radical transformation under Elon Musk's ownership and his association with US president-elect Donald Trump.

Bluesky, which originated as a project within Twitter before becoming an independent platform in 2022, has quickly become a refuge for those seeking a break from the rising tide of far-right activism, misinformation, and offensive content that has overtaken X in recent months. As X grapples with growing controversy and user dissatisfaction, Bluesky is capitalizing on the opportunity to position itself as a civil and balanced alternative...

The Growing Backlash Against X and Musk’s Vision

The rise of Bluesky is part of a broader trend of backlash against X since Elon Musk's acquisition of the platform. Under Musk’s leadership, X has shifted its focus, alienating a significant portion of its user base. In the aftermath of the US election, many have expressed concerns about the platform's increasing alignment with far-right political groups and its potential transformation into a propaganda tool for Trump and his supporters.

For example, a prominent critic of X, historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, who had 250,000 followers on X, noted that she picked up 21,000 followers within her first day on Bluesky after moving to the platform. She shared her concerns about X's potential evolution into a far-right radicalization machine under Musk’s stewardship. Ben-Ghiat said, "After January, when X could be owned by a de facto member of the Trump administration, its functions as a Trump propaganda outlet and far-right radicalization machine could be accelerated."

This sentiment reflects the growing sense of unease among users about the political direction of X. As Musk’s political ties become clearer and his rhetoric becomes more controversial, users who once considered X a neutral platform for conversation now see it as a space increasingly hostile to their values. For many, Bluesky is emerging as the antidote to this growing disillusionment."

Elon Musk says X users fight falsehoods. The falsehoods are winning.; The Washington Post, October 30, 2024

Will Oremus

, 

Trisha Thadani

 and 

Jeremy B. Merrill

, The Washington Post; Elon Musk says X users fight falsehoods. The falsehoods are winning.

"When Elon Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, he laid off swaths of workers tasked with moderating the platform and embraced an experimental approach: asking users to fact-check one another.

Musk has touted the crowdsourcing program, called Community Notes, as “the best source of truth on the internet.” But the majority of accurate fact checks proposed by users on political posts are never shown to the public, according to research from the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) and a separate data analysis by The Washington Post — suggesting that the feature is failing to provide a meaningful check on misinformation."

2 years in, Trump surrogate Elon Musk has remade X as a conservative megaphone; NPR, October 25, 2024

Shannon Bond, Bobby Allyn , NPR; 2 years in, Trump surrogate Elon Musk has remade X as a conservative megaphone

"For the owner of one of the internet’s most influential public squares to openly endorse one political party shocked many observers — especially since only six months earlier, as Musk agreed to buy the company, he declared that "For Twitter to deserve public trust, it must be politically neutral, which effectively means upsetting the far right and the far left equally."

Now, as both the 2024 election and the second anniversary of Musk's takeover of Twitter loom, the billionaire has completely evaporated any notion of political neutrality on the platform he's renamed X because his influence on it remains outsized.

Musk has put his money and mouth behind returning Donald Trump to the White House, pouring $75 million into a super PAC he created to turn out voters in battleground states and using X to cheerlead for Trump, smear Vice President Kamala Harris, and amplify rumors and conspiracy theories to his 202 million followers."

Is X a threat to American democracy?; The Tufts Daily, October 16, 2024

 Olivia Bye, The Tufts Daily; Is X a threat to American democracy?

"Park’s experience on the site mirrors that of X’s roughly 550 million monthly users and can largely be attributed to X’s acquisition by multi-billionaire businessman and investor Elon Musk in October 2022. In the two years following Musk’s purchase of X, the site has seen unprecedented levels of misinformation and disinformation clouding its user base, a trend that has only been exacerbated in recent months by the 2024 presidential election. The combination of growing artificial intelligence capabilities and a social media platform that has, in nearly every sense, exonerated its regulations of what can or cannot be shared to the site has raised the question: Is X a threat to American democracy?...

However, Associate Professor of Political Science Michael Beckley is skeptical that the increase in political misinformation sets this year’s presidential election apart, citing comparable patterns that have occurred throughout history. “We’ve seen similar things when radio first came out. [People wondered], was this going to allow strong men to rally people behind their cause? We saw the same thing with TV,” he said. “So [the misinformation] is jarring, but I don’t see it as a unique factor. It is rather a pretty chronic factor in a democratic system.”

Kelly Greenhill, an associate professor of Political Science, identifies the normalization of false information spread by notable figures as a key reason behind increased disinformation in the media... 

Greenhill suggests that possibly the best solution to avoid X’s abundance of misinformation is, simply, to leave. “People don’t have to use X. They can leave. They can delete their accounts. They can also leave social media. They may not want to, and they may not choose to, but they can,” she wrote. Some users are choosing to do just that; social media sites that have advertised themselves as alternatives to X, such as Bluesky and Mastodon, have amassed popularity in recent years."

Twitter Barred Them.: What Happened When Elon Musk Brought Them Back?; The New York Times, October 12, 2024

Kate CongerTiffany Hsu and Aaron Krolik, The New York Times;  Twitter Barred Them.: What Happened When Elon Musk Brought Them Back?

"After Hurricane Helene, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the hard-right conservative from Georgia, shared on X the widely debunked claim that government scientists could control the weather. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done,” she wrote in one post.

The conspiracy theorist Alex Jones repeatedly posted on X erroneous claims about Hurricanes Helene and Milton, including that the Pentagon had somehow engineered the storms.

“Treason Alert,” Mr. Jones wrote in one post. “America is the target,” he warned in another.

In just those three posts, Ms. Greene and Mr. Jones racked up a combined 72,000 likes, and over 34,000 shares. They are only a handful of the many misleading diatribes and conspiracy theories that regularly appear on X.

Not long ago, those two would not have been able to publish those posts through their accounts.

Ms. Greene and Mr. Jones are among a large set of users who were barred from the site for spreading misinformation, inciting violence or otherwise violating its rules — and were reinstated after Elon Musk bought the platform, then known as Twitter, two years ago.

Many of these people picked up where they left off, according to a New York Times analysis of 50,000 posts by more than 100 high-profile reinstated users. They include Laura Loomer, a right-wing influencer who has campaigned with Mr. Trump; Mike Lindell, the chief executive of MyPillow; and Rogan O’Handley, a right-wing political commentator. All have a broad reach — at least 100,000 followers — and were identified by researchers who study disinformation or extremism on X."

Elon Musk’s X Is Now Worth Around A Fifth Of The $44 Billion He Paid For It, Fidelity Says; Forbes, September 30, 2024

Ty Roush , Forbes; Elon Musk’s X Is Now Worth Around A Fifth Of The $44 Billion He Paid For It, Fidelity Says

"Elon Musk’s X is worth a little more than one-fifth of the $44 billion he paid to acquire the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, according to Fidelity, the latest in a series of valuation cuts by Fidelity since Musk’s takeover in 2022...

Musk is the wealthiest person in the world with a fortune valued at $269.8 billion, according to our latest estimates...

$24 billion. That’s how much the eight largest investors in X have lost in combined value since Musk purchased the firm as of Sept. 1, according to the Washington Post."

New book ‘Character Limit’ explores Musk’s impact on social media after buying Twitter; PBS News Hour, October 2, 2024

Ali Rogin , PBS News Hour; New book ‘Character Limit’ explores Musk’s impact on social media after buying Twitter

"He’s the richest person in the world, but also one of the most controversial and increasingly engaged in polarizing political debates. A new book details the tumultuous leadership of Elon Musk and his approach to owning X. Ali Rogin spoke with Kate Conger and Ryan Mac, authors of "Character Limit.""

How Elon Musk and X Became the Biggest Purveyors of Online Misinformation; Rolling Stone, August 9, 2024

Miles Klee , Rolling Stone; How Elon Musk and X Became the Biggest Purveyors of Online Misinformation

"Elon Musk has trouble telling the truth. Whether he’s overpromising on what his companies can accomplish or twisting the facts about his own children, it’s clear he doesn’t feel constrained by reality, which is no doubt what made him into the mogul of misinformation he is today. 

Almost two years after Musk completed his $44 billion takeover of Twitter (now X), he and the platform — where he reigns not just as owner but the most-followed user — have become essential to the life cycle of incendiary falsehoods and conspiracy theories. While mainstream social media companies have long tried to prevent such content from gaining traction, leaving extremists to ply their lies on smaller, obscure, unmoderated networks, Musk fired the Twitter teams tasked with battling deceptive material. He also reinstated thousands of accounts that had received permanent bans, including neo-Nazis and conspiracy kingpin Alex Jones, often engaging with these people himself. On top of that, he changed the verification system into a pay-to-play scheme in which subscribers enjoy boosted visibility; at the same time, it became harder to tell which accounts belonged to genuine public figures.

The removal of Twitter’s (imperfect) guardrails meant that suddenly, for the first time, a major online resource many relied on for news and information was overrun by the manipulative trolls formerly relegated to the fringes of the social web. Misinformation about wars, health, climate change, elections and more flourished alongside violent rhetoric and hate speech, in a digital forum that has actual influence on the course of human events.         

At the center of it all is Musk, whose turn to hard-right ideology has led him to spout and amplify untruths with abandon, algorithmically forcing them onto an audience of millions. But he wasn’t always so deep into the reservoir of easily debunked rumors and bogus claims. In this timeline, we trace how he turned X into a misinformation machine."

Musk's X seeks Brazil comeback, retreats on 'censorship' feud; Reuters, September 27, 2024

 Ricardo Brito and Luciana Novaes Magalhaes, Reuters; Musk's X seeks Brazil comeback, retreats on 'censorship' feud

"In a major climbdown, Elon Musk's X told Brazil's Supreme Court it had complied with orders to stop the spread of misinformation and asked a judge to lift a ban on the platform, according to a document seen by Reuters.

The billionaire had held out for more than five months against what he called "censorship" in a feud with a judge in one of X's largest and most coveted markets. The court shut Brazilians' access to the platform in late August."

Elon Musk’s misleading election claims reach millions and alarm election officials; The Washington Post, September 10, 2024

 

Sarah Ellison

, 

Amy Gardner

 and 

Clara Ence Morse

, The Washington Post; Elon Musk’s misleading election claims reach millions and alarm election officials

"The chairman of the board of elections in Montgomery County, Pa., was well acquainted with the regular attendees at his monthly meetings who peddled old, debunked voting conspiracy theories.

But something changed after April 4, the chairman, Neil Makhija, explained in an interview. That was the day Elon Musk retweeted a false claim that as many as 2 million noncitizens had been registered to vote in Texas, Arizona and Pennsylvania.

Suddenly, the same people were coming to the meetings with a new, unsubstantiated theory of voter fraud that appeared to align with Musk’s latest post: They were convinced that droves of noncitizens were voting illegally in their suburban Philadelphia county of nearly a million people."

Elon Musk’s attacks on Kamala Harris become more unhinged, with help from AI, CNN, September 3, 2024

Donie O'Sullivan , CNN; Elon Musk’s attacks on Kamala Harris become more unhinged, with help from AI

"Elon Musk’s disdain for the Democratic Party was never subtle, but in recent weeks his commentary on the upcoming US presidential election and his attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris have intensified, aided by a crude use of burgeoning artificial intelligence technology.

On Monday, Musk posted an AI-generated image on his social media platform that depicted Harris as a communist, wearing a red uniform complete with hammer and sickle emblazoned hat.

Musk, who has endorsed former President Donald Trump for president and poured millions into a super PAC supporting the Republican, captioned the image with the false assertion, “Kamala vows to be a communist dictator on day one. Can you believe she wears that outfit!?”"

Elon Musk’s financial support for Republican causes has been much more extensive and started earlier than previously known; Wall Street Journal, October 2, 2024

Dana Mattioli, Joe Palazzolo, Khadeeja Sardar, Wall Street Journal;  Elon Musk’s financial support for Republican causes has been much more extensive and started earlier than previously known

"Elon Musk’s financial support for Republican causes has been much more extensive and started earlier than previously known."

How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter; Fresh Air, NPR, September 11, 2024

 Fresh Air, NPR; How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter

"After buying Twitter in 2022, Elon Musk instituted sweeping changes. He laid off or fired about 75% of the staff –including about half the data scientists. He also ended rules banning hate speech and misinformation. Authors Kate Conger and Ryan Mac recount the takeover in Character Limit."

Elon Musk ‘orders Twitter to remove suicide prevention feature’; Reuters via The Guardian, December 23, 2022

Reuters via The Guardian; Elon Musk ‘orders Twitter to remove suicide prevention feature’

"Twitter has removed a feature in the past few days that promoted suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources to users looking up certain content, according to two people familiar with the matter, who said it was ordered by new owner Elon Musk.

The removal of the feature, known as #ThereIsHelp, has not been previously reported. It had shown at the top of specific searches contacts for support organisations in many countries related to mental health, HIV, vaccines, child sexual exploitation, Covid19, gender-based violence, natural disasters and freedom of expression.

Its elimination could add to concerns about the wellbeing of vulnerable users on Twitter...

In part due to pressure from consumer safety groups, internet services including Twitter, Google and Facebook have for years tried to direct users to well-known resource providers such as government hotlines when they suspect someone may be in danger."

Twitter takeover: fears raised over disinformation and hate speech; The Guardian, October 28, 2022

Dan Milmo and Alex Hern, The Guardian ; Twitter takeover: fears raised over disinformation and hate speech

"Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition has been polarizing, sparking reactions from politicians, regulators and non-profits across different continents.

Some have expressed concerns about potential changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies now that it’s in the hands of the Tesla billionaire, while others celebrated how they expect the platform’s newly minted leader will handle content and speech on Twitter.

Senior politicians in the UK and Europe on Friday warned Musk over content moderation on Twitter, with the EU stressing the platform will “fly by our rules” and a UK minister expressing concerns over hate speech under the billionaire’s ownership.

The EU’s internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton, wrote on the platform on Friday that “in Europe, the bird will fly by our rules”, in response to Musk’s earlier tweet saying “the bird is freed” in apparent confirmation that he had bought the business.

The EU is introducing the Digital Services Act, which includes provisions for removal of illegal content including hate speech."

Far right is using Twitter’s new rule against anti-extremism researchers; The Washington Post, December 2, 2021

Drew Harwell, The Washington Post; Far right is using Twitter’s new rule against anti-extremism researchers

Researchers fear the new ban on posts sharing people’s private information will be ‘emboldening to the fascists’ eager to keep their identities concealed. ‘Things now unexpectedly work more in our favor,’ one Nazi sympathizer wrote.

"The company said that each report will be reviewed case-by-case and that flagged accounts can file an appeal or delete the offending posts to resolve their suspensions.

Snyder, the Philadelphia anti-fascist researcher, said she believed her reported tweet did not break the rules but deleted it anyway, worried that any appeal she filed would take too long or ultimately fail. She suspects the rule could have a “catastrophic” chilling effect on other researchers working to expose extremists."

Think Outside the Box, Jack; The New York Times, May 30, 2020

Maureen Dowd, The New York Times; Think Outside the Box, Jack: Trump, Twitter and the society-crushing pursuit of monetized rage.

"The Wall Street Journal had a chilling report a few days ago that Facebook’s own research in 2018 revealed that “our algorithms exploit the human brain’s attraction to divisiveness. If left unchecked,” Facebook would feed users “more and more divisive content in an effort to gain user attention & increase time on the platform.”

Mark Zuckerberg shelved the research...

“The shareholders of Facebook decided, ‘If you can increase my stock tenfold, we can put up with a lot of rage and hate,’” says Scott Galloway, professor of marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business.

“These platforms have very dangerous profit motives. When you monetize rage at such an exponential rate, it’s bad for the world. These guys don’t look left or right; they just look down. They’re willing to promote white nationalism if there’s money in it. The rise of social media will be seen as directly correlating to the decline of Western civilization.”"

Facebook and Twitter spread Trump’s lies, so we must break them up; The Guardian, November 3, 2019

Robert Reich, The Guardian; Facebook and Twitter spread Trump’s lies, so we must break them up 

"The reason 45% of Americans rely on Facebook for news and Trump’s tweets reach 66 million is because these platforms are near monopolies, dominating the information marketplace. No TV network, cable giant or newspaper even comes close. Fox News’ viewership rarely exceeds 3 million. The New York Times has 4.7 million subscribers.

Facebook and Twitter aren’t just participants in the information marketplace. They’re quickly becoming the information marketplace."