‘X is a toxic media platform’: Major news outlet refuses to post anything on X after Elon Musk’s political interference
In the wake of the election, and in response to the negative impact Elon Musk exerted, a major news outlet has enacted a boycott of the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). Hopefully the first of many, The Guardian recently announced it will no longer be posting on X, denouncing Elon’s influence on the 2024 election and the gradual evolution of the social media platform into a quagmire of hate speech and misinformation.
The news outlet shared a letter to readers on Wednesday, titled “Why the Guardian is no longer posting on X,” announcing there will be no further posts on any of its official editorial accounts. “The benefits of being on X are now outweighed by the negatives,” The Guardian stated, citing the “disturbing content” found and promoted on the platform.
With the influx of “far-right conspiracy theories and racism” on X, The Guardian concluded, “X is a toxic media platform and that its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse.” The publication seems eager to distance itself from the social media platform, and relieved that it is no longer subject to “the whims of the social media giants’ algorithms.”
The Guardian specifically mentioned Musk’s influence on X and the election, and they’re not wrong to take such issue with the social media platform’s owner. Even Musk’s own personal X account is a hotbed of misinformation and had a major impact on the election.
Elon Musk’s X account is a cesspool of lies
According to a report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, following his official endorsement of Donald Trump, Musk’s political posts achieved 17.1 billion views. The report compared Musk’s posts to official political campaign ads, and found that the number of views Musk’s posts received would cost a campaign approximately $24 million in ad sales.
Musk clearly has an extensive reach on X, and the Wall Street Journal reported that his political posts were heavily promoted on the platform—particularly among users with non-political interests. Unfortunately, Musk’s prominence on X was used to negatively influence voters. At least 87 of Musk’s posts, which amassed 2 billion views, were identified in the digital hate report as containing “false or misleading” information.
None of those 87 posts featured any of the platform’s internal fact checking. However, X’s own AI chatbot, Grok, singled out Musk as “one of the most significant spreaders of misinformation on X,” following his acquisition of the platform.
But Musk’s own posts are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the hate and misinformation that have been brewing on X. Since Musk’s takeover, studies have shown a dramatic uptick in hate speech, including a 202% increase in the use of the n-word, 58% increase in homophobic slurs, 62% increase in transphobic slurs, 33% increase in misogynistic language, and a doubling of antisemitic Tweets.
Fact checking on X is virtually nonexistent
Much of the rapid spread of misinformation and hateful language has to do with Musk’s decision to eliminate Twitter’s Trust and Safety department, which was tasked with fact checking throughout the platform. The department was replaced with “Community Notes,” a system that essentially outsources fact checking to approved X users who can flag individual posts which then get rated by other users.
However, though Musk claimed the Community Notes system had “incredible potential for improving information accuracy,” Wired spoke to several Community Notes contributors, who shed light on the reality of the system. Every contributor the publication interviewed claimed there was zero training given to approved Community Notes contributors, and all agreed that the system is “not up to the task” of curbing the spread of misinformation on X.
The entire setup of the Community Notes system is a clear path to disaster, as fact checking is now no longer based on actual facts and research, but rather on user opinions. As lies and hate speech continue to overtake X, companies, users, and publications like The Guardian are beginning to abandon the platform. This leaves X (and its fact checking) in the hands of right-wing nut jobs, organizations with dangerous agendas, and possibly foreign governments. So basically, Truth Social.
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