Musk’s X: Fueling disinformation?

By Avi Asher-Schapiro | U.S. Tech Correspondent

X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, is being flooded with misleading posts, including doctored images and videos purporting to show the ongoing conflict in Israel and Palestine.

Research from the group Media Matters found that accounts with X’s verification badge had racked up millions of views passing off videos and images from other conflicts as news from the ground. Some verified accounts also impersonated news outlets.

As Bloomberg reported, under Elon Musk’s leadership Twitter has made a number of changes that could exacerbate this problem, including cutting staff tasked with curating and labeling content, as well as allowing users to purchase verification badges that boost their reach.

Israeli military vehicles and soldiers from an artillery unit gather near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, October 12, 2023. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Theodora Skeadas, a former public policy staffer at Twitter who worked on content moderation, told Context that staffing cuts had significantly undermined Twitter’s capacity to tackle the deluge of doctored posts and misleading videos and images.

“The work that Twitter would have done in the past is elevate reliable information, remove misinformation and content that violates the terms of service – add labels to certain posts for more context,” she said. “With reduced staff across trust and safety teams it’s so much harder to undertake that work.”

Elon Musk, owner of X, formerly known as Twitter. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes