This Week in Misinformation: Elon Sets Flame to Twitter, Amnesty Brings Back the Worst Accounts, Trump Outlines Free Speech Agenda
15 December 2022
This Prism newsletter strives to be the paper of record for all that’s happening in misinformation in the United States. For any citizen whose life is impacted by misinformation, it helps you see how storylines evolve from multiple, sourced angles on important stories in one place. For amateur and professional misinformation watchers, it is your go-to resource for updates on peers, platforms, propagandists, and politicians. Learn more about Prism and our other products on our Substack page, follow us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook!
________________________________
Still true: misinformation is THE BEST lens through which to understand news about the world. Remove the garbage cluttering your view, and you can see things clearly for what they are.
Thank you for reading and letting others know what we’re up to here. It makes a big difference every time.
Sharing is easy and fun! Get your sign-up on here before you forget:
Reliability scores for media outlets cited in the summary are in parentheses for each, courtesy of the terrific folks at Ad Fontes Media.
Now, on to our top stories.
An evidently red-pilled Elon Musk drove Twitter off the metaphorical cliff.
In this chapter of his character arc, the Twitter owner and echo-chambered billionaire acted out his stated antipathy against what he calls "woke mind virus" (via Twitter) and doubled down on contrarianism against COVID science by tweeting that his “pronouns” are “Prosecute/Fauci” (Fortune, 44.49). No mention of what crime he could possibly be referring to, nor did he acknowledge that making fun of pronouns is a well-worn--and not particularly funny--right-wing trope. Musk also bizarrely agreed with a person asserting that society is either “in a mass wakening event or total collapse of society” (via Twitter).
Going even further down the rabbit hole into apparent belief in QAnon-type conspiracy theories, Mr. Musk outright denied that Twitter’s previous management did anything to counter child sexual abuse material, and wouldn’t be persuaded otherwise even when former CEO Jack Dorsey corrected him (via Twitter). This was all happening at the same time Musk was making a child predator villain out of Yoel Roth (New York Post, 32.50), who as the executive in charge of trust and safety on the platform enjoyed the new owner’s complete support until he resigned last month.
Meanwhile, Musk moved content moderation further toward utter capriciousness by disbanding a safety-related advisory board (Politico, 42.79) and inventing rationales by which to permanently suspend well-known reporters who file stories about him, his jet’s public comings and goings, and/or that he apparently tweeted but didn’t call police about an alleged threat against his young son (Associated Press, 48.80). For those interested, the decision to ax CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan and independent journalist Aaron Rupar, whose work we regularly cite in this newsletter, made us resolve to put the Prism Twitter account on ice for a few weeks at least.
A lot of extremists and disinformationists returned to Twitter under Musk’s “amnesty.”
QAnon, for example, is flourishing in the New Twitter (Washington Post, 39.79). Fans of QAnon, as well as the older and bigger world of conspiracy theories, thrilled at seeing Uncle Elon tweet out "follow the white rabbit," (@AlKapDC via Twitter) a phrase that is closely related to becoming awakened to the truth about vast conspiracies controlling our world.
Vaccine denialists and quack cure hucksters have come back to Twitter in force (Medpage Today, -) and are free to say basically anything thanks to Elon’s suspension of COVID misinformation enforcement (Associated Press, 48.80). One of them has helpfully volunteered to help Musk run medical fact-checks on the platform (The Intercept, 40.64).
And then there’s just a really disheartening, broad assortment of users welcomed back who had ignored many warnings they were breaking terms of service before getting the boot, including misogynists like Andrew Tate (BBC, 46.15) and fascists embedded into right-wing politics who are also white supremacists and antisemites (Twitter via @BenLorber8). No wonder Sir Elton John announced he was quitting the platform due to rampant misinformation (via Twitter).
Donald Trump laid out some “free speech” policies for his second term that may shape the debate over misinformation in coming years.
Calling it a plan to dismantle the “Censorship Cartel,” (Forbes, 43.33), candidate Trump listed a number of specific steps he would take if he wins in 2024. He released a video of himself going through the points one by one, but thanks to Don Jr. there is a simple graphic that summarizes the whole thing (via Twitter).
The proposal amounts to a shot across the bows of “Big Tech,” elements of the government who communicate with social media platforms about misinformation, the media, and even universities (CNBC, 46.06) for supposedly violating the First Amendment. Like the Twitter Files, though (see past editions of this newsletter), most of Trump’s plan is reactive to perceptions that don’t hold up when examined, for example that government bureaucrats have regularly censored Americans in collusion with the platforms.
If I had to guess as to the timing, I’d wager this policy proposal came out on the same day as the NFTs thing because the NFT thing was an unmitigated embarrassment for Trump (The Hill, 43.37), particularly in how badly it went over with his allies and supporters (New York Times, 42.66).
Yes, even though I’m tired of course we are going to have a grab bag: Russian trolls fakes out Donald Trump Jr. with phony Kid Rock accounts; the estate of Alex Jones is officially defaulting on its obligations; a startup providing Internet safeguarding services partners with CIA's In-Tel-Q; Twitter is trying to keep people from knowing about competitor Mastodon; there are, um, reasons to be skeptical about the Twitter Files; Kari Lake is caught in a lie about some maps hanging in Maricopa County’s offices; a DHS analyst warned about January 6th but no one listened; the Special Counsel subpoenas Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger about Trump’s “find votes” call; Marjorie Taylor Greene says she would have put on a much more effective insurrection than the one that failed; Mark Meadows texts show members of Congress urging Trump to stage a coup after his 2020 loss; and the January 6th Committee will hold its final hearing, make criminal referrals, and issue its full report next week.
All that, and a lot more, below. This is This Week in Misinformation.
-- Kevin