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As Conflict in Israel Raged, Musk Promoted Known Misinformation Peddlers

Both accounts Musk endorsed have over the past year spread a number of online hoaxes.

As Israel came under an unprecedented attack by Palestinian militants Saturday that threatened to drag the entire region into a deadly conflict, Elon Musk logged on to his platform X, formerly called Twitter, to promote the accounts of known misinformation peddlers as good sources of information on the rapidly unfolding war. “For following the war in real-time, @WarMonitors & @sentdefender are good,” Musk posted—ignoring the fact that both accounts have over the past year spread a number of online hoaxes and false information, including the claim back in May that an explosion had gone off near the White House. The rumor later went viral and led to a short-lived but significant dip in the stock market, according to The Washington Post. After many X users brought up the accounts’ past mistakes, Musk deleted his initial post and issued another imploring people to “please try stay as close to the truth as possible, even for stuff you don’t like.”