X is in a state of disarray right now, and Elon Musk is being held responsible for it.
**In Short:**
– Elon Musk’s management of X has raised serious concerns.
– He is accused of spreading misinformation.
– Extremists who were previously banned have been reinstated.
Elon Musk has turned X into a chaotic platform under his control. He treats it like his personal playground, where his likes and comments can boost or suppress accounts, he blocks users at random, and he labels dissenting opinions as spam. Despite his claims of promoting diverse voices, Musk has faced accusations of spreading misinformation and hate speech. UK officials have even alleged that he refused to remove content flagged as a national security threat by their government.
Recently, Musk stoked controversy by labeling UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer with a hashtag #TwoTierKier and endorsing a far-right conspiracy theory that claims white rioters receive harsher police treatment compared to minorities. He also suggested that riots are a result of cultural conflicts and stirred panic by predicting “civil war is inevitable” in the UK, drawing criticism from the government.
A recent Washington Post report reveals that several prominent X accounts supporting US Vice President Kamala Harris have been marked as spam or restricted. This has raised concerns among some Democrats, who fear that Elon Musk’s platform might be biased in favor of his preferred candidate, former President Donald Trump.
These issues are sparking questions about whether the platform is intentionally censoring certain pages or if the difficulties are a result of the mass layoffs Musk implemented when he took over, which may have left the platform struggling to manage effectively.
Meanwhile, it’s not just Elon Musk’s posts and promotions that are raising concerns. Since Musk took over X in November 2022, he has reinstated numerous extremists who were previously banned under Jack Dorsey’s leadership for violating the platform’s policies. One notable example is Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who has been allowed back on the platform.
Robinson, who is a far-right activist, was reinstated last November. Since then, Musk has interacted with Robinson on the platform. Musk has also amplified various such accounts by posting incendiary content about the violence by commenting or adding exclamation marks to their posts. Robinson too has frequently expressed his gratitude to Musk, praising him as “the best thing to happen for free speech this century.”
Disinformation researcher Marc Owen Jones has highlighted in a series of posts on X that any interaction from Elon Musk can greatly boost the visibility of a post, leading to a sharp increase in views, likes, and shares—even for posts that were previously losing engagement. Jones points out that “Twitter has been a disinformation delivery system,” facilitating the “proliferation of anti-migrant and anti-Muslim speculation.”
Elon Musk’s leadership of X has turned the platform into a chaotic echo chamber, where his personal preferences shape the discourse and extremists have regained a platform. Although he claims to support free speech, his actions suggest a selective approach that raises concerns about bias, misinformation, and the platform’s capacity to manage the influx of political rhetoric. As Musk continues to create controversy through both his posts and company policies, the once-respected social media giant appears to be descending into a haven for disinformation, where the distinction between free speech and harmful rhetoric is increasingly blurred.
