Musk’s paid checkmarks help fuel X’s spread of Israel/Hamas misinformation

Report: 74% of X's most viral misinformation posts are from "verified" users.

See full article...

 

[TVPaulD]

"Another X-verified user, Laura Loomer, a former Project Veritas reporter who ran unsuccessfully as a Republican congressional candidate in Florida in 2020 and 2022, shared three war-related myths, including that the US sent $8 billion in military aid to Israel. Her October 7 post advancing this falsehood was viewed 360,000 times through Oct. 14," NewsGuard wrote.

NewsGuard are letting Loomer off rather lightly with this passive description. She is an outspoken, explicitly genocidal, self-described white nationalist. She rejects the term “white supermacist” but anyone reasonable who takes a cursory glance at her views would be hard pressed to conclude that her motivation for doing so is related to anything other than knowing the optics are significantly worse.

 

[TonyJ588]

I hope Europe bans Twatter entirely. The beginning of the end.

 

[Thad Boyd]

What’s the point of this research when the answer is already known

...people do research on things that are already well-understood (or thought to be) all the time. Even if something is obvious (or seems obvious), gathering and analyzing data to corroborate is a worthwhile goal in itself.

 

[dacushman]

In every historical example liberal/liberal democratic/parlementarian parties always side with fascists against leftists, always under the guise of preventing too much change too quickly or, as you say we should “maintain the status quo and work on getting out a few bad actors! Then the system will work as intended despite it never working that way before!”.

Yeah man! Up the revolution! Down with the Bolsheviks!

 

[Deleted member 388703]

Are you insinuating that the people who approvingly point to Twitter's "community notes" as a better source of truth than Lamestream Media because "who will fact check the fact checkers?", might have a bad argument?

The same Community Notes that post-Musk now pushes racist disinfirmation? That Community Notes?

 

[VividVerism]

The same Community Notes that post-Musk now pushes racist disinfirmation? That Community Notes?

"Context" suggested by an increasingly far-right white-supremecist userbase contains racist tropes often used in support of ethnic-clensing‽ I'm shocked...shocked to learn there's racism going on here!

 

[Constructor]

In every historical example liberal/liberal democratic/parlementarian parties always side with fascists against leftists, always under the guise of preventing too much change too quickly or, as you say we should “maintain the status quo and work on getting out a few bad actors! Then the system will work as intended despite it never working that way before!”.

That is utter nonsense and actually backwards!

In reality radicals on either side generally neglect consensus-building and actually sane and workable proposals and then moan and whine about effectively everybody else rejecting their ideological grandstanding, including, yes, the respective opposite radicals.

Yes, at times liberals and moderates are indeed more timid and conservative than they should be, but when you're proposing change the onus is on you to explain how this would actually work in the real world where your minority faction does not happen to have unlimited dictatorial powers the way you may be dreaming about but the majority actually needs to be convinced of those ideas!

 

[Constructor]

To be fair, initially even the BBC used phrasing like "an explosion occurred at the hospital amid Israeli airstrikes" or something along those lines. Which is not inaccurate, but it does certainly imply it was caused by the airstrikes.

No, it does not. It says that it happened at the same time, not necessarily as a consequence!

 

[Unremarkable]

It’s our fault for not reading the entire product description, “verified that this person successfully bought a prepaid Visa card at a gas station”.

 

[Anton Longshot]

I'd almost believe he actually read 1984 but then, he's Elon Musk.

 

[Constructor]

I'd almost believe he actually read 1984 but then, he's Elon Musk.

Or his only conclusion from it was that he wanted to become Big Brother himself!

 

[Yagisama]

It all makes sense when you think of these accounts as "verified" for misinformation.

 

[Celery Man]

Damn, I do appreciate a solid Musk zing.

It’s definitely not Boring Company around here!

 

[Soused]

Why is anyone still using this platform?

 

[VividVerism]

The people posting swastikas, stars of David's on Jewish people's homes, claiming Hamas attacks are justified and photos of men in paragliders and the many excuses ending in we just want peace

Those people are extremists. By definition, they are an extreme faction not part of the mainstream. Many of them are likely anti-semites in other areas as well. Again, the vast, vast majority of people criticizing Israel believe nothing of the sort and do not support those actions.

It is possible to hold all of these beliefs at the same time:

• Hamas is a terrorist organization and Israel is justified in executing a military operation to wipe them out.
• The IDF is carelessly and recklessly disregarding Palestinian civilian life during their military operation, and has a history of doing so.
• This reckless disregard for civilian life amounts to war crimes and needs to stop.
• Israel's blockade of Palestine, in particular the current total siege of the Gaza territory, is immoral and a crime against humanity, and needs to be ended.
• U.S. military aid should be contingent on not using it to commit further war crimes. I would say the same thing about Ukraine aid, if Ukraine were to start indiscriminately bombing civilian areas in the way Russia and Israel do.
• Israel's government is taking advantage of and abusing the US's unconditional, uncritical support, because in US politics even mild and well-deserved criticism of Israel's government is attacked as anti-Semitic.
• Israeli citizens deserve a life free from fear of horrific terrorist violence such as the unjustified attack by Hamas that sparked the current conflict.
• Palestinian citizens deserve self-determination, a home, and basic things like "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" that have been denied them by Israel's government for decades.
• Things said by Hamas (a terrorist organization, as stated earlier) cannot be trusted blindly without confirmation. They have a history of lying.
• Things said by Israel's government or military regarding their violence against Palestinians cannot be trusted blindly without confirmation. They have a history of lying (e.g. that reporter they shot a while back).

None of those beliefs require an additional belief that Jews need to be wiped out or pushed out of Israel, nor a belief that Hamas's horrific terrorist attack was in any way "justified".

aren't aligned with the first comment on this article by Frodo D. We know who the political demographic physically attacking Jews right now are. We know thier policy positions.

Go read that comment and explain exactly how that comment as a reply to this article makes any sense to someone who understands anything about political factions in the US.

1. Several of the disinfo items specifically called out in the article are, in fact, anti-Israel and seek to justify the Hamas position.
2. You really, really don't know the "policy positions" of the extremists you're trying to paint as representative of an entire political party here.
3. Jews aren't the only ones being attacked by extremists, and the far right is often quite vocal in their support for wiping out every man, woman, and child in Palestine.
4. "Nazis" in Frodo's post does not refer strictly to the anti-Semitic part of Naziism, but also the anti-free-press, pro-disinformation, and pro-genocide parts.

The only peace that's wanted is one in a mandatory Palestine free of Jews as mentioned in the Hamas charter

Wrong. As said again, and again, and again: support for basic human rights for Palestinians does not equate to support for a Jewish genocide.

Please stop equating every single criticism of the Israeli government, no matter how mild, as being the same as wanting to wipe out all Jewish people. This is a ridiculous false equivalence and only serves to excuse any and all misdeeds by a government that even Jewish people in Israel have been protesting against in recent years.

And there's no way those mentioned agree with that. See those complaining about recent and past military aid to Israel. Where do they align?

Most people, especially among US politicians, complaining about military aid to Israel probably align with those who think deliberate targeting of civilians and other war crimes are bad and should stop. That's it. Nothing to do with wanting to wipe out Jewish people.

You keep wanting to make this black and white, wanting everyone to be either 100% for Israel's government or 100% against both them and the Israeli people. That's not how reality works. There is nuance here and has been for a long time.

My Jewish friends have stopped going out with visible signs of ethnicity and religion. It's not those people they are worried about.

That's horrible and I hope they can feel safe again soon. But they're not afraid of people who think Israel is abusing US military aid. They're afraid of violent extremists who want to kill Jews. Those are two very distinct groups.

Violent extremists on both sides of the Israel-Hamas conflict are victimizing innocent people and terrorizing entire communities, and need to be stopped. Just look at this fucker who murdered a 6-year-old boy and tried to murder his mother, only because they are Muslim:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67128474
Where do you think he would "align" with the anti-Hamas disinformation called out in the article? You've expressed support for Israel in this thread, should I assume you support invading the homes of random Muslims 1000s of miles away from the conflict to murder innocent 6-year-olds?

As for the NYT and Ars people have died because of the NYT story and people will keep spreading the old uncorrected Ars story.

What uncorrected Ars story? Are you still talking about the UAW story? There is a correction at the top of that article. There isn't an uncorrected story to spread. It no longer exists.

The NYT have already issued a new story that gives details of the analysis showing the IDF is most likely not to blame for the hospital explosion. I have yet to see a single NYT article that still claims uncritically that the IDF is at fault. Do you have a link to a story that still makes that claim? If not, what more do you want from them?

Spoiler: off-topic about Starlink

Just like everything about Starlink in Ukraine where people still believe someone was watching the operation live and ended it and that the DOD had a contract with SpaceX at the time like you see in every SpaceX story.

If Musk didn't want people believing there was someone watching the operation who shut off service in the middle of it, then maybe he shouldn't have let his biographer publish that information in the first place. I really, really don't want to rehash all the arguments in THAT thread but I'm pretty sure we still don't have all the details on that story, and I definitely don't think Musk and Starlink are as innocent there as you're implying. Regardless, it definitely doesn't come up in every Starlink story. And, I don't think I've ever seen a well-received claim the DoD had a contract at the time which was violated by Starlink by cutting off service. Musk pretty famously stated publicly that Starlink would continue providing service to Ukraine at a loss (frustrating and overriding his CEO who was trying to get a contract with the DoD). I've come away from every article and comment thread on the topic with the understanding the DoD's contract was after that event.

Edit: Shotwell ≠ Yaccarino. SpaceX doesn't have a figurehead CEO.

 

[hpsgrad]

This article must be referring to the BBC and all those other media outlets which repeated the claim made by Hamas that Israel bombed that hospital rather than it being an Islamic Jihad rocket.

Disinformation outlets don’t offer corrections, retractions, or apologies. Others have already noted the story updates from the BBC and other major outlets.

Conflating every error or disagreement with deliberate misinformation is counterproductive. Doing so deliberately is malicious.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

Conflating every error or disagreement with deliberate misinformation is counterproductive. Doing so deliberately is malicious.

And arguably misinformation in itself.

 

[VividVerism]

And arguably misinformation in itself.

I'll just add that the article itself gives specific examples of disinformation studied, and if the OP had actually read the article instead of commenting based on the title alone, they'd have phrased their comment very differently. It looks pretty silly as it stands.

 

[J.C. Helios]

Report: 74% of X's most viral misinformation posts are from "verified" users.

Do people who pay Musk $8/month get the algorithmic boost whether they show the blue checkmark or not? I'm wondering if the other 26% are from accounts that choose to hide their "verified" status.

https://meincmagazine.com/tech-policy...-twitter-blue-you-can-hide-the-checkmark-now/

 

[graylshaped]

Why is anyone still using this platform?

Inertia

 

[Shazster]

This is gonna get so many downvotes

I think you underestimate the sheer mass of the Ars Commentariat that are total suckers for a good Lebowski based thread-hijack.

 

[Constructor]

Sorry the Palestinians are my Russia here. They overwhelmingly support Hamas just like Russians support Putin (and the alternative politicians in Russia are like Navalny, anti Ukraine too).

Neither of those blanket assumptions holds up to closer scrutiny the way you present it, and in particular neither would be a valid excuse to murder civilians. Hamas does that, and Putin does. Are those your role models?

Summarily lumping a whole population together with the regimes they have to live under and the most extreme radicals they have to live with serves only one purpose: To excuse cruelty and barbarism against that whole population, keeping those who order and commit those acts in power over their own terrified and often terrorized population under their fist, with Hamas' massacres standing out even beyond their previous atrocities.

Does it need mentioning that there is no path out of this horror through a path of even more inhumanity?

If there was, this would have ended long ago. It hasn't, and it won't.

The obvious but still inconvenient reality is that Hamas cannot be destroyed by massacring Palestinian civilians. Even if somebody was deranged enough to attempt that.

Same as the obvious oppression of the Palestinians can't be resolved by murdering israeli civilians. That derangement has undeniably proven itself already.

What is needed is the opposite of what you're proposing: Not lumping entire populations together with the worst of their worst exponents and ideas, but separating the extremists from the populations.

The only way to get there is to treat each other as humans, as actual people, and to shove the extremists aside and deal with them separately according to their actual guilt.

Not denying that the respective other civilians exist and have a right to exist is inevitably necessary for this. Could you truthfully claim that this was sincerely even attempted yet, beyond far too few heroic individuals and smaller groups?

Yet that is the only way forward.

 

[VividVerism]

And now in your retelling Shotwell is a figurehead when every comment out there claims she's the one really responsible for SpaceX's success and EM is an NPC playing with an unconnected controller.

I will acknowledge this mistake and edit my post. For some reason I momentarily confused Shotwell at SpaceX with Yaccarino at Twitter. Oops. No argument here on that one, Shotwell actually is normally the one in charge over there.

Which actually makes it even worse that Musk would swoop in to do stupid shit multiple times regarding Starlink in Ukraine, bypassing the normal level-headed and intelligent leadership.

 

[VividVerism]

What a time to be alive. I'd never be in a conflict where I have to choose between Israel and the US on one side and Hamas, Hezbollah, and the IRGC/Iran on the other and choose anything other than the first option. No matter the facts on the ground. I'm definitely not going to be promoting promoting those groups.

I have no idea why you STILL seem to think I'm supportive of Hamas. Several times now, I've referred to them as terrorists who have done unjustified terrorist things.

Hamas sucks. Fuck Hamas.

Palestinians deserve human rights.

The IDF isn't using unguided weapons in Gaza; we know who's firing indiscriminately.

"We didn't kill dozens of civilians when an unguided bomb accidentally struck a civilian convoy, that bomb was guided and hit exactly what we wanted it to" isn't the defense against accusations of war crimes that you seem to think it is.

 

[VividVerism]

If you read the generated caption you'll come to the conclusion that nothing changed about the story. You know lots of people don't go past the headline.

That's what the "[Updated]" text is for in the article title.

So your condition that must be met for a news organization to "correct" a story, is they must also update the title of the story? The title that Twitter now removes from posts sharing the link?

 

[Moonscript]

It gives me a such a warm feeling to know that I can get my misinformation from verified sources on eX-Twitter. How nice!

No, wait, that's a bold-faced lie. The truth is that I get a warm feeling knowing that I am not now, nor ever will be, on eX-Twitter.

/s

edit: word swap

 

[graylshaped]

I think you underestimate the sheer mass of the Ars Commentariat that are total suckers for a good Lebowski based thread-hijack.

It's what ties the room together.

 

[Carewolf]

It is possible to hold all of these beliefs at the same time:

• Hamas is a terrorist organization and Israel is justified in executing a military operation to wipe them out.
• The IDF is carelessly and recklessly disregarding Palestinian civilian life during their military operation, and has a history of doing so.
• This reckless disregard for civilian life amounts to war crimes and needs to stop.
• Israel's blockade of Palestine, in particular the current total siege of the Gaza territory, is immoral and a crime against humanity, and needs to be ended.
• U.S. military aid should be contingent on not using it to commit further war crimes. I would say the same thing about Ukraine aid, if Ukraine were to start indiscriminately bombing civilian areas in the way Russia and Israel do.
• Israel's government is taking advantage of and abusing the US's unconditional, uncritical support, because in US politics even mild and well-deserved criticism of Israel's government is attacked as anti-Semitic.
• Israeli citizens deserve a life free from fear of horrific terrorist violence such as the unjustified attack by Hamas that sparked the current conflict.
• Palestinian citizens deserve self-determination, a home, and basic things like "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" that have been denied them by Israel's government for decades.
• Things said by Hamas (a terrorist organization, as stated earlier) cannot be trusted blindly without confirmation. They have a history of lying.
• Things said by Israel's government or military regarding their violence against Palestinians cannot be trusted blindly without confirmation. They have a history of lying (e.g. that reporter they shot a while back).

None of those beliefs require an additional belief that Jews need to be wiped out or pushed out of Israel, nor a belief that Hamas's horrific terrorist attack was in any way "justified".

Thank you, that was well said and succinct.. I wish I had the guts to repost this on Facebook.

 

[Snarky Robot]

They overwhelmingly support Hamas just like Russians support Putin (and the alternative politicians in Russia are like Navalny, anti Ukraine too).

Fun fact: half of people in the Gaza Strip, a little over a million people, are literal children. 18 years old or younger. The last time they had an election was 2006, 17 years ago. Not that you’re not pulling this claim out of your ass in the first place, but just so you truly understand the scope of your hatred, you are directing your bile towards a populations with such poor standard of living and die so young ghat half of them couldn’t even vote in the United States. These children have never known a day without Hamas rule, without Israel blockading them and trapping them in prison conditions. That’s your enemy: a nation of literal children

Israel committed war crimes before the heinous attack in their people. They are committing war crimes now. Loathe every terrorist with every fiber in your body. But just remember that the “democracy” you want people to overwhelmingly support actually VOTED for the government that is doing those things. Half of Gaza has never had an opportunity to vote in their entire life. Israelis had a choice.

And we know what these literal children experienced. We have data prior to this barbaric attack by Hamas. From January 2008 to September of 2023, over 6,400 Palestinians were killed by Israel. 308 Israelis were killed by Palestinians. In, fact fewer Israelis were INJURED by Palestinians in this time period than Israel killed, (about 6,300). Compared to that 6,300? Over 150,000 Palestinians were injured by Israeli attacks. There are about 5.5 million Palestinians. There are about 9 million Israelis. 2/5ths the population of Israel, but 25 times the injuries and 21 times the death.

We should absolutely condemn every terrorist. But if we are to condemn any citizens in this conflict, should we condemn those who had no choice in their power structure…or those that did, and most of whom served in the military blockading Gaza?

Nobody need choose sides here. You can say “fuck Hamas” and “fuck the Israeli treatment of Palestinians” without a hint of reservation or even a mote of hypocrisy. And if you can’t say that? If you can honestly look at the power imbalance and the abject poverty inflicted upon the people of the Gaza Strip and feel no empathy for what has been done to them by Israel? You’re not the good guy.

 

[Snarky Robot]

If you read the generated caption you'll come to the conclusion that nothing changed about the story. You know lots of people don't go past the headline.

And some folks, like you, can’t even get to the end of the headline, apparently. Let’s look at the “generated headline”.

Nope, no way for a person to see that anything was changed , alright. Just this weird phrase. What does Upd Ated even mean, amiright?

 

[Zontar]

I am unclear as to the thrust of your post.

Then you skipped the very first line.