Elon Musk continues to mess it up on Twitter, now as the owner of the company.
The tycoon has linked a website known for false information about him to spread a news without apparent basis about the attack with a hammer on Paul Pelosi, the husband of Nancy Pelosi, the president of the House of Representatives and third authority of the United States.
Curiously, he has done it in response to a tweet from Hillary Clinton, who according to that website, has been dead since at least 2016 and has been replaced by a double.
The multiplier effect of Elon Musk's tweets has caused the
Santa Monica Observer
website to crash for hours.
That outlet is "famous for its fake news," as the
Los Angeles Times described it.
He not only published that Hillary Clinton had died and had been replaced by a double for the 2016 presidential election debate against Donald Trump.
Months later it was fabricated that Trump had appointed Kanye West to a high-level job at the Department of the Interior.
In 2020, he claimed that sunlight could be a remedy against covid and that Bill Gates, one of the main funders of vaccine research, had been responsible for a polio epidemic.
Hillary Clinton had tweeted a story precisely from
the Los Angeles Times
pointing out that David DePape, the man arrested for the assault on Paul Pelosi, was spreading conspiracy theories from the extreme right.
And she wrote this message: “The Republican Party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and insane conspiracy theories.
It is shocking, but not surprising, that violence is the result.
As citizens, we must hold them accountable for their words and the actions that follow them.”
In response to Clinton, Musk has linked the story to the
Santa Monica Observer.
"There is a small chance that there is more to this story than meets the eye," he wrote in a tweet that he deleted hours later.
The news claims that Paul Pelosi was drunk, that DePape is a prostitute and that they went home together from a gay bar and then once there the fight took place.
Capture of Elon Musk's tweet later deleted, in which he spread false information.
Musk's tweet has reached more than 100,000 likes and tens of thousands of retweets and comments before it was removed from the platform.
Democratic Congressman from Illinois Adam Kinzinger is one of those who has replied to Musk: “Really?
Twitter's new owner is spreading the conspiracy theory... even saying there is a 'small chance', he has written.
really?
The new owner of twitter is spreading the conspiracy theory…even just saying there is a “tiny possibility.”
https://t.co/rBSoaqa1FN
— Adam Kinzinger #fella (@AdamKinzinger) October 30, 2022
The messages of indignation have been numerous.
Comedian Jimmy Kimmel is among those who have responded to Musk in outrage.
Writer and journalist Molly Jong-Fast has commented: "This exchange between Hillary Clinton and Elon Musk should destroy any remaining trust advertisers had in the platform."
The police have said that DePape entered the house through a back door, that the agents went to the house after a call from Paul Pelosi and that upon arrival they saw them struggling for control of a hammer, with which the aggressor ended up hitting to Nancy Pelosi's husband before he was arrested.
He has also said that the attack was intentional, although he has avoided commenting on its political motivation.
The US media assured, citing police sources, that he asked for the president of the Lower House: "Where is Nancy?"
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins has announced that she will file "multiple felony charges" on Monday and that she expects DePape to be arraigned on Tuesday.
"DePape will be held accountable for his heinous crimes," she wrote on Twitter.
Police announced that he is being investigated for alleged crimes of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, assault, robbery, threatening a public official and other crimes.
Since the moment of closing the purchase of the social network, Twitter users have tested Elon Musk with racist, supremacist, sexist, homophobic and xenophobic messages, which have been triggered despite the fact that the social network has not changed for the moment its content moderation policy.
Musk has tried to defend himself on the social network with that argument.
In parallel, he has announced the creation of a council to propose new moderation guidelines.
Musk proclaims himself an "absolutist of freedom of expression", but has tried to reassure advertisers that Twitter is not going to become "a hell" where anything goes and you can write anything without consequences.
In that message he also said that he aspired for Twitter to be "the most respected advertising platform in the world."
However, the fact that he himself spreads a link to a media outlet known for false information about him on such a sensitive matter casts doubt on whether he will be able to combat disinformation, hoaxes and hate messages.
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