Musk’s new Twitter policy helped spread Russian propaganda – WP
A study by the European Commission found that the current policy of Twitter owner Elon Musk (now Company X) has led to Russian propaganda about Ukraine reaching more people than before the war. Despite measures taken by major social media companies, including Meta, to counter the spread of Russian propaganda, Russian disinformation against Ukraine is flourishing. This was reported by The Washington Post on September 1.
The authors of the article reminded that Elon Musk withdrew his social network from the voluntary code of conduct on combating disinformation, which became widespread in June 2022, and also eased the rules for posting content and reduced the number of security personnel.
This has led to a significant increase in the audience and reach of Kremlin-supporting social media accounts across Europe in 2022, the study says.
Moreover, in the first half of 2023, the reach and influence of Kremlin-backed accounts grew even further. Analysts suggested that this situation arose due to the abolition of Twitter’s security standards.
It was noted that the EU takes a stricter approach to monitoring information than the United States. On August 25, the law on digital services came into force, which obliges social media owners to assess the risk of false information and prevent publications containing false information from being rated higher.
At the same time, analysts noted that Musk’s company failed to stop the spread of Russian propaganda, and Twitter was not alone in this.
“Pro-Kremlin accounts continue to reach the largest audience on Meta platforms. At the same time, on Telegram, the size of the audience of Kremlin-backed accounts has more than tripled since Russia’s invasion in February 2022,” the analysts emphasized.
Commenting on the results of the European study, American observers said that numerous propaganda campaigns use hate speech, support extremists and threaten national security, potentially affecting next year’s European elections. At the same time, both Company X and Meta did not respond to journalists’ requests for comment.
As reported by The New Yorker on August 22, Elon Musk mentioned in a phone conversation with Pentagon officials about providing satellite internet to the Ukrainian army that he had personally spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin. It was noted that Musk was afraid that the provision of Starlink communications in Russia would be considered military assistance to Ukraine.
