- Twitter owner Elon Musk said the social platform should become “the most accurate source of information”.
- Critics pointed out that Musk shared an incorrect story about the attack on Paul Pelosi last week.
- Twitter founder Jack Dorsey also joined the conversation.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday that his goal was to make Twitter a “more accurate” media platform, but critics say the billionaire has made decisions on the platform that suggest otherwise.
“Twitter must become the most accurate source of information for the world. That’s our mission.” Musk tweeted Sunday evening. He also shared a similar sentiment in a November 2 Tweetin which he said Twitter would become the most accurate news source “regardless of political affiliation.”
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2022
Critics were quick to point out that just days earlier Musk had been linked to inaccurate news following the Oct. 28 attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, in which an intruder entered her San Francisco home and struck Paul Pelosi with a hammer. Pelosi was released from the hospital Thursday after being admitted with a fractured skull following the attack.
On October 30, in response to a tweet by Hillary Clinton denouncing the attack, Musk shared a link to a website promoting conspiracy theories about the attack, including one that falsely claimed the attacker was a male prostitute hired by Pelosi .
“There is a small possibility that there is more to this story than meets the eye,” Musk he answeredlinking to a page with the headline, “Horrible truth: Paul Pelosi was drunk again and in a dispute with a male prostitute early Friday morning.”
Musk later deleted the tweet.
MSNBC journalist and political commentator Mehdi Hasan was A e dozens e calculation on Sunday evening that pointed to Musk’s distribution of the unargued article.
“Literally a week ago today, Musk posted a link to a fake news website (which once suggested Hillary Clinton was dead and replaced by a body double),” Hasan tweeted. Worse, he deleted that tweet without explanation or apology. But of course, his ‘mission’ is accurate information.”
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) November 7, 2022
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey also responded to Musk’s tweet: asking “correct to whom?”
Musk responded to Dorsey, saying he would base the accuracy on “Twitter people through Community Notes,” which is a feature that allows Twitter to add context to posts they deem misleading.
Musk did not provide detailed information on how he plans to improve accuracy on the site.
Dorsey also tweeted that making the site “more informative,” rather than “more accurate,” would be a better goal for the platform.
The notes feature, originally called Birdwatch, was previously used in a tweet. Friday, users added context to a tweet Musk had shared about “activist groups pressuring advertisers” to ban their ads on Twitter.
Over the past week, Musk has shared many broad plans for the platform, including monetization of creator-generated content, a new verification subscription model, and new rules regarding accounts that impersonate other users.
Representatives for Twitter did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
