Feed is rife with posts of individuals deemed suspicious and calls for doxxing
with little evidence provided of fault
While Elon Musk faces his own election integrity questions offline, the X owner
has deputized his followers to spot and report any “potential instances of voter
fraud and irregularities”. The community he spawned is rife with unfounded
claims passed off as evidence of voter fraud.
Musk opted not to show up to a required court appearance Thursday in
Philadelphia to respond to a lawsuit challenging his political action
committee’s daily $1m voter giveaway. Meanwhile, online, he has started a
dedicated community space on X, formerly Twitter, where he’s asked users to
share any issues they see while voting. Users posting on the self-contained
feed, the “election integrity community”, quickly began pointing out what they
deemed as evidence of fraud and election interference.
Continue reading...
Tag - X
The platform’s billionaire owner has seen its value plunge as advertisers run
shy, revenues drop and user numbers fall
Two years ago, there was some trepidation among advertisers, anti-hate-speech
groups and staff about Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.
Those concerns have been borne out: advertisers have sharply reduced spending on
the platform, Musk has sued nonprofits over their coverage of a rise in
controversial content and about eight out of 10 employees have been sacked.
Continue reading...
The megalomaniacs who control X and Facebook are only able to pollute the public
sphere and undermine democracy because of our deference to money
There are two kinds of aphrodisiac. The first is power. A good example was
provided by the late Henry Kissinger, who could hardly be described as toothsome
yet was doted upon by a host of glamorous women.
The other powerful aphrodisiac is immense wealth. This has all kinds of effects.
It makes people (even journalists who should know better) deferential,
presumably because they subscribe to the delusion that if someone is rich then
they must be clever. But its effects on the rich person are more profound: it
cuts them off from reality. When they travel, writes Jack Self in an absorbing
essay: “The car takes them to the aerodrome, where the plane takes them to
another aerodrome, where a car takes them to the destination (with perhaps a
helicopter inserted somewhere). Every journey is bookended by identical Mercedes
Vito Tourers (gloss black, tinted windows). Every flight is within the cosy
confines of a Cessna Citation (or a King Air or Embraer)… The ultra-rich never
wait in line at a carousel or a customs table or a passport control. There are
no accidental encounters. No unwelcome, unapproved or unsanitary humans enter
their sight – no souls that could espouse a foreign view. The ultra-rich do not
see anything they do not want to see.”
Continue reading...
X owner renews hostilities with Center for Countering Digital Hate after it is
linked to US election interference row
* UK politics live – latest updates
A UK-founded anti-hate speech campaign group dragged into the Labour US election
interference row has vowed to carry on its work after Elon Musk’s latest
declaration of “war” against the organisation.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate returned to the crosshairs of the world’s
richest person this week after Musk alleged that it was violating laws against
foreign interference in US elections.
Continue reading...
America Pac is targeting users interested in the Boy Scouts of America, Kelsey
Grammer, Kid Rock and Joe Rogan
Elon Musk’s Pac is spending far more on ads on Facebook and YouTube than on X,
Musk’s own social network.
America Pac paid $201,000 to run dozens of ads on X, formerly Twitter, during
the past three months. However, it spent $3m on thousands of advertisements on
Facebook and Instagram in roughly the same time period. Musk founded the
pro-Donald Trump Pac in July and has funded it to the tune of $75m, according to
filings with the Federal Election Commission.
Continue reading...
Saud al-Qahtani had been suspended permanently on Twitter before Elon Musk took
over and rebranded it as X
A key Saudi suspect in the murder of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018
has had his account reinstated on X, the social media company controlled by Elon
Musk, after it was permanently suspended under the company’s previous owner.
Saud al-Qahtani, a onetime key adviser to Mohammed bin Salman, had “direct
involvement” in the murder of Khashoggi, according to a US intelligence
assessment released by the Biden administration in 2021.
Continue reading...
The owner of X is just one of many who may prefer Donald Trump to greater
regulation under the Democrats
Way back in the 1960s “the personal is political” was a powerful slogan
capturing the reality of power dynamics within marriages. Today, an equally
meaningful slogan might be that “the technological is political”, to reflect the
way that a small number of global corporations have acquired political clout
within liberal democracies. If anyone doubted that, then the recent appearance
of Elon Musk alongside Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania provided useful
confirmation of how technology has moved centre-stage in American politics. Musk
may be a manchild with a bad tweeting habit, but he also owns the company that
is providing internet connectivity to Ukrainian troops on the battlefield; and
his rocket has been chosen by Nasa to be the vehicle to land the next Americans
on the moon.
There was a time when the tech industry wasn’t much interested in politics. It
didn’t need to be because politics at the time wasn’t interested in it.
Accordingly, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple grew to their
gargantuan proportions in a remarkably permissive political environment. When
democratic governments were not being dazzled by the technology, they were
asleep at the wheel; and antitrust regulators had been captured by the
legalistic doctrine peddled by Robert Bork and his enablers in the University of
Chicago Law School – the doctrine that there was little wrong with corporate
dominance unless it was harming consumers. The test for harm was price-gouging,
and since Google’s and Facebook’s services were “free”, where was the harm,
exactly? And though Amazon’s products weren’t free, the company was ruthlessly
undercutting competitors’ prices and pandering to customers’ need for next-day
delivery. Again: where was the harm in that?
Continue reading...
Tesla and SpaceX chief’s behavior sets him apart from even the most politically
active billionaires – serving as a Trump policy adviser and mega-donor
Less than a month before the presidential election, Elon Musk has made himself a
near-constant presence in the race. At a rally for Donald Trump in Pennsylvania,
Musk jumps with glee wearing a custom black Maga hat. On social media, he posts
AI-generated images attacking Kamala Harris. Behind the scenes, he bankrolls one
of the largest pro-Trump political action committees.
The billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has emerged as a unique influence on the
campaign in ways that set him apart from even the most politically active
billionaires and tech elite. He is all at once a vocal Trump surrogate, campaign
mega-donor, informal policy adviser, media influencer and prolific source of
online disinformation. At the same time, he is the world’s richest man and the
owner of one of the United States’ most influential social networks, while also
operating as a government defense contractor and wielding power over critical
satellite communications infrastructure.
Continue reading...
Data is vital to AI systems, so firms want the right to take it and ministers
may let them. We must wake up to the danger
Imagine someone drives up to a pub in a top-of-the-range sports car – a £1.5m
Koenigsegg Regera, to pick one at random – parks up and saunters out of the
vehicle. They come into the pub you’re drinking in and begin walking around its
patrons, slipping their hand into your pocket in full view, smiling at you as
they take out your wallet and empty it of its cash and cards.
The not-so-subtle pickpocket stops if you shout and ask what the hell they’re
doing. “Sorry for the inconvenience,” the pickpocket says. “It’s an opt-out
regime, mate.”
Chris Stokel-Walker is the author of TikTok Boom: China’s Dynamite App and the
Superpower Race for Social Media
Continue reading...
Although choosing a venue is not uncommon, northern district stands out because
it’s not where X is located
Elon Musk’s X has updated its terms of service to steer any disputes from users
of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter to a federal court in
Texas whose judges frequently deliver victories to conservative litigants in
political cases.
New terms of service that will take effect on 15 November specify that any
lawsuits against X by users must be exclusively filed in the US district court
for the northern district of Texas or state courts in Tarrant county, Texas.
Continue reading...