This Week in Misinformation: Twitter-Elon, Pinterest-Climate, Ivanka-J6C, Russia-Bucha, 'QAnon' Postcards, Lindell-$35M
7 April 2022
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Reliability scores for media outlets cited in the summary are in parentheses for each, courtesy of the terrific folks at Ad Fontes Media.
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Now, on to our top three stories.
We’ll start with Twitter, its new largest shareholder, and how its competition is handling misinformation.
Everyone’s favorite billionaire Elon Musk spent billions to buy more than 9 percent of Twitter (Axios, 45.27), was promptly named to its board of directors, and hinted he might change a few things about the site (CNBC, 46.28). Of course, because it’s Elon on social media, all this got him into a little trouble with financial regulators (Wall Street Journal, 45.35). Speculation also immediately swirled that Donald Trump or other high-profile violators of Twitter’s policies might be unsuspended because of Musk’s positions on free speech (Will Oremus via Washington Post).
In other Twitter news, the company announced--on April Fool’s Day, for some reason, but it turned out not to be a prank--it would soon release an "edit" button, raising questions about how that could be used for misinformation and other mischief. Twitter, and Facebook as well (Washington Post, 42.87), also took additional steps to limit Russian government accounts (BBC, 46.15).
Trump’s experiment in social media appears to be further on the ropes, as reporters gain access and relay that there's not a lot of activity on the site (Insider, 43.22). The poor showing weeks after launch led two execs to quit (Reuters, 48.05), and the company’s financial and technical troubles seem only to grow worse with time (Washington Post, 42.87).
Notably in the platform space, Pinterest banned misinformation about climate change (CNN, 42.73). We’ll be watching for how this new policy plays out.
Trump’s own daughter and son-in-law have now given testimony to the January 6th Committee.
Ivanka Trump spent several hours with the Committee this week (Wall Street Journal, 45.35), close on the heels of her husband, Jared Kushner (NBC News), who gave close to six hours of testimony last week.
Less cooperative were Trump advisers Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino (CBS News, 46.08), who as a result have now been referred to the Department of Justice for contempt of Congress.
After a seven-hour gap in White House phone records in possession of the Committee was reported last week, Trump gave an interview with The Washington Post (42.87) in which he denied having altered the records in any way. But also he offhand mentioned he definitely spoke with Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, and others he couldn’t recall exactly, during the gap. Hmm.
A few notes on the Russia of it all.
Despite its protests to the contrary and attempts to discredit video footage publicized last week, pictures taken from space) showed that Russian soldiers indeed massacred civilians in Bucha (New York Times, 44.30). PBS (48.36 has a solid report out on Russia's Bucha-related disinformation that I recommend (PBS). If you want a take more sympathetic to Russian lies, though, look no further than China's coverage of the episode (CNN, 42.73).
A former Russian government official called Vlad Putin "misinformed" and in a "self-inflicted bubble' (Newsweek,38.36), adding to a trickle of recent reports to this effect. It makes sense that powerful leaders are as susceptible as anyone else, I suppose; their very power can prevent information from reaching them and warps that which does.
Axios (45.27) and NBC News (45.78) were out this week with reports on Ukraine-related misinformation that is spreading in places far from Russia and the English-speaking world. Check ‘em out!
You wouldn’t go without your grab bag, would you? Grad students (what’s up, @coolfacejane!) are doing awesome things in anti-misinformation; someone mailed "QAnon" postcards all across New England; the Anti-Defamation League unmasks the QAnon guy who made “biolabs” go viral; Justice is investigating “officials in Donald Trump's orbit” for January 6th stuff; Trump allies are pushing to have ballots hand-counted in future elections; Mike Lindell reveals he has sunk $35 million into election trutherism (and this is the thanks he gets); Obama says he ”underestimated” disinformation's threat to democracies; a fake “grand jury” scam is trying to raise money from vaccine opponents; and Alex Jones finally sat for his Sandy Hook deposition.
That, and a lot more, below. This is This Week in Misinformation.
-- Kevin