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X Promises to Slow Israel-Hamas Misinfo as Elon Musk Does the Opposite

Elon Musk shared two accounts that he deemed fit for “following the war in real-time,” and promoted a QAnon supporter and anti-Muslim conspiracy theories.

The social media platform X, formerly Twitter, declared late Monday that it would limit the spread of misinformation regarding the Israel-Hamas conflict. “A cross-company leadership group has assessed this moment as a crisis requiring the highest level of response,” the Trust and Safety team’s statement read. But according to Wired, the team has no leader following the resignation of Ella Irwin in June. The team later added that it had “removed newly created Hamas-affiliated accounts” and others that were “attempting to manipulate trending topics.” However, Elon Musk’s posts over the weekend worsened the situation. He shared two accounts that he deemed fit for “following the war in real-time,” and promoted a QAnon supporter and anti-Muslim conspiracy theories. But users uncovered that both accounts had posted a fake AI image of an explosion at the Pentagon and that one of them had posted antisemitic comments. Eliot Higgins, the founder of investigative news outlet Bellingcat, said that sharing false information was beneficial for X Premium subscribers because they receive money for engagement, regardless of accuracy.