Opinion: Musk’s courtship with MAGA has pushed X right into a misinformation abyss

Multibillionaires are eccentric. It’s widespread data, like water is moist, fireplace is sizzling, “Joker: Folie à Deux” is a horrible movie.

From Jeff Bezos to Peter Thiel to Richard Branson to Howard Hughes (adjusting for inflation), they do bizarre issues: shoot themselves into area, spend money on therapies to “cure” ageing, purchase islands and wash their fingers so much.

It’s uncommon that the opposite 99.9% of us are immediately uncovered to their world-ownership whims, although we not directly undergo the implications of their rocket ship carbon emissions, self-serving tremendous PACS and failure to pay taxes.

Elon Musk, nonetheless, is a unique story.

Because the Tesla and House X proprietor bought Twitter (now X) in 2022 for $44 billion, he’s assumed the mantle of “free speech” warrior. I put free speech in quotations as a result of we’re not speaking in regards to the type of free speech folks struggle and die for underneath dictatorships or theocracies.

Musk’s thought of “freedom” is amplifying hate speech, sowing misinformation, stoking conspiracies, propping up nationalists in locations like India and Argentina, and complying with censorship requests from authoritarian regimes like Turkey’s.

Screaming out lies

As for our presidential race right here at dwelling, Musk’s deceptive election claims on X have been considered 1.2 billion instances between January and July of this yr, in response to the Middle for Countering Digital Hate.

Then there’s the creepy posts, just like the one geared toward Taylor Swift after she endorsed Kamala Harris on Instagram, and signed off as “Childless Cat Lady.” “Fine Taylor … you win,” Musk wrote on X final month. “I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life.” Gross.

Musk just lately amplified the false claims and conspiracy theories that Federal Emergency Administration Company officers have been “actively blocking” aid shipments to victims of Hurricane Helene, “seizing goods … and locking them away to state they are their own.”

Musk additionally propagated the politically motivated MAGA-verse lie that FEMA was quick on funds as a result of it had spent an excessive amount of on undocumented migrants. He accused the company of “treason” and wrote incorrectly that the company “used up its budget ferrying illegals into the country instead of saving American lives.” A lot for serving to fellow People of their time of want.

The richest man on this planet as an alternative used his megaphone to misinform catastrophe victims, telling them that assist was not on the best way. The false data dovetailed with election propaganda benefiting the Trump marketing campaign.

Dictating coverage

Musk’s propensity to align himself with chaos monkeys on the far proper would nonetheless be unlucky, however far much less damaging if his leanings weren’t additionally dictating coverage for the almost 200 million day by day X customers worldwide.

Since Musk’s buy of Twitter, he’s made it more durable to determine which accounts are reliable due to promoting the blue “verified” examine mark reasonably than vetting customers to see whether or not they actually are who they declare to be.

He additionally reinstated previously banned accounts, equivalent to that {of professional} misogynist Andrew Tate, rapper Kanye West, who was deplatformed for his antisemitic tirades, and Donald Trump.

If X is a city sq., it’s inundated with a right-wing mob marching unpoliced via in any other case crowded streets. And Musk is their cheering benefactor.

Earlier this week, Musk declared that the tremendous PAC he created is providing $47 to anybody who registers as a swing-state voter and indicators a petition supporting the first and 2nd Amendments to the Structure. “Easy money!” he posted.

Musk confirmed up at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, final weekend clad in a black MAGA hat, and declared, “I’m not just MAGA; I’m Dark MAGA.” It was a reference to a “Terminator” meme embraced by the far proper. He then inspired folks to vote, saying that in the event that they don’t, “this will be the last election.”

Additionally carrying a too-small T-shirt that learn “Occupy Mars,” Musk started hopping up and down — thus launching numerous memes — to point out his enthusiasm for the person he’s backing within the election. It was awkward, to say the least.

Even Trump seemed aggravated.