Elon Musk only took control of Twitter a little over seven months ago—even if it seems much longer. One week after moving in, he used his new personal platform to tweet that the site “needs to become by far the most accurate source of information about the world. That’s our mission.”
Since then, a BBC investigation has found the site increasingly overrun by Russian and Chinese propaganda accounts. Defense One reported how Twitter turned itself into a channel for propaganda after every data scientist working to keep out disinformation was fired. The Brookings Institution analyzed how hate speech has soared on the site with moderation reduced to an impotent shadow. The Poynter Institute has detailed how, even as the site has suppressed the views of regular users, engagement with “misinformation superspreaders” was sharply up. That’s particularly true because, as AFP Fact Check notes, Musk continues to give his personal stamp of approval to conspiracy theories, lies, and outright hoaxes.
In interviews, Musk has declared that the increase of hate speech on the site is a lie, and that there is actually “less disinformation” now than previously. But he has offered no evidence to support his counterfactual claims.
On Sunday, Musk took another step to protect the spread of disinformation and propaganda on Twitter, one that could mean the site has to cease operations across Europe.
In the European Union, social media platforms operate following the Code of Practice on Disinformation. This is a set of voluntary guidelines which platforms (including social media platforms, private messaging systems, and email providers) sign on to as a pledge to reduce the level of disinformation being spread. The goal is to provide users with accurate, truthful information by working with fact-checkers and providing a level of transparency to researchers.
At the moment, these guidelines are completely voluntary. So is the level of adherence. Platforms can sign on and dive hard into rooting out bad actors, or they can make pledges about increasing their levels of moderation in the future, or they can simply issue statements about their intentions without providing a lot of specifics. Facebook has signed on. Instagram is in. Google is a signatory. So is Microsoft. Gaming streamers like Twitch follow these guidelines. So does the Chinese-owned TikTok.
Twitter also signed up for the code of practice. At least, it did until Sunday when, as the BBC reports, it suddenly withdrew from voluntary participation. It all seems to be part of Musk deliberately allowing Twitter to become the preferred platform for spreading lies.
The social media giant used to have a dedicated team that worked to combat coordinated disinformation campaigns, but experts and former Twitter employees say the majority of these specialists resigned or were laid off.
That includes disbanding the company’s Trust and Safety Council, which not only dealt with disinformation, but with “harassment, stalking, doxxing, child abuse, self-harm, and foreign election interference” as well. About 60% of all workers who were involved in these issues are now gone, including all the data scientists performing analysis. Overall, 80% of the entire human moderation team at Twitter has been eliminated.
When it comes to Europe, Musk is soon going to run into a wall. The guidelines that have been voluntary since they were first instituted in 2018 will become law in August 2023. By the end of the summer, Twitter will have to up its game when it comes to moderating against disinformation, sharing data, and cooperating with fact-checking organizations. It it doesn’t, Twitter will be shut down across the EU.
There has been no official comment from Twitter on the platform’s withdrawal, but according to Euronews, officials there are expecting Musk to keep prioritizing the promotion of propaganda over continuing to operate in Europe.
As NPR reported in April, it’s not just Russia that has found the new Muskified Twitter a convenient pipeline for spreading lies and silencing critics.
The previous guardrails on government accounts in Russia, China, and Iran have now been removed, according to two former Twitter employees who spoke to NPR on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
A study from DFRLab showed that tweets promoting Chinese state media took a sharp upward turn at the end of March, when Musk halted efforts that had previously tried to squash networks of bots and trolls that repeat authoritarian propaganda and attack accounts. This reversed a slow decline in retweets of these accounts that had been taking place for years.
As Reuters reports, it just so happens that Musk is in China today, negotiating with the same government that creates that disinformation for an expansion of his factories in that country. Musk, in addition to supporting massive growth of Russian state-authored propaganda on Twitter, has also offered a “peace plan” that would hand large parts of Ukraine over to Russia. A year before the invasion of Ukraine, Musk announced that he was hoping to open a factory and establish dealerships in Russia.
It’s easy to view Musk’s purchase of Twitter for $44 billion as a massive mistake and an ego-driven move to seize control of a social media platform by a conspiracy-prone tyrant whose social skills are considerably less than those of a rotting stump. But Musk may well see the whole thing as a large investment in his future. Owning Twitter gives him another way to show his friendliness to authoritarian dictators in countries where propaganda is the only news anyone is allowed to watch.
When it comes to spreading lies, he wants them to know that he’s on their team.
How can Democrats win the messaging war? It turns out there's actually a science to it, as strategic communications consultant Anat Shenker-Osorio tells us on this week's episode of "The Downballot." Shenker-Osorio explains how her research shows the importance of treating voters as protagonists; how Democrats can avoid ceding "freedom" to Republicans by emphasizing "freedoms," plural; and why it actually makes sense to call out "MAGA Republicans" (even though, yes, it's all Republicans).