EU calls Musk’s social network “X” the largest source of Russian disinformation
After analyzing reports on how tech companies deal with disinformation, the European Union recognized billionaire Elon Musk’s social network X (formerly Twitter) as the largest means of spreading Russian lies and propaganda
Bloomberg reports.
Věra Jourová, Vice President of the European Commission, said that platforms need to act ahead of the national and European elections to be held next year.
“This weapon of mass manipulation is aimed at Russians, Europeans and the rest of the world. Very large platforms should eliminate this risk. In particular, we should expect the Kremlin and others to be active before our European elections,” she said.
Most major tech companies, including Facebook Meta Platforms, Google, and TikTok, have agreed to work with the EU on a voluntary code of conduct that aims to set industry standards for fact-checking and other measures. The unit also implemented a pilot project to assess the scope of the problem.
“X, formerly Twitter, which is no longer subject to the code, is the platform with the highest number of disinformation posts. The pilot project also showed that disinformation actors have significantly more followers than their non-disinformation counterparts and tend to join the platform later than non-disinformation users,” Yurova said.
The Vice-President of the European Commission called on Twitter to “abide by the strict law” as the social network is recognized as a major online platform.
Yurova also said that the impact of Russian disinformation is particularly acute in Slovakia, where elections are taking place on Saturday.
“Slovakia has been chosen as a country where there is fertile ground for Russian pro-Kremlin, pro-war narratives to succeed. This week’s elections will be a test, as Russia’s approach to the war in Ukraine is a fault line,” she said, adding that Facebook and Google have taken some steps to strengthen their efforts to combat fake news after pressure. with the EU.
Elon Musk’s shutdown of Starlink in Crimea
Writer Walter Isaacson wrote about the Starlink outage in his biography of Elon Musk. According to him, the businessman was afraid that the Ukrainian Armed Forces would not use the technology to strike the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Musk, in turn, said that he did not disconnect Starlink in Crimea – he rejected Ukraine’s request to connect it.
“SpaceX did not deactivate anything. There was an urgent request from government agencies to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol. The obvious intention was to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor. If I had agreed to their request, SpaceX would have been a clear accomplice in a major war and escalation of the conflict,” the businessman explained.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the OP, called Musk’s actions a mixture of ignorance and a big ego, which resulted in numerous human casualties.
Later, Musk said that he did not consider himself a traitor for shutting down Starlink satellite Internet in the temporarily occupied Crimea.
“I am a citizen of the United States and have only this passport. No matter what happens, I will fight for America and die for America. The US Congress did not declare war on Russia. If anyone is a traitor, it is those who call me one,” the billionaire said.
The U.S. Senate demands an investigation into American billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX company after he admitted that he blocked Ukraine’s Starlink satellite Internet service in the temporarily occupied Crimea.
It is worth noting that this is not the first scandal involving Musk. Last year, his company SpaceX informed the Pentagon that it refused to finance Starlink satellite communications services in Ukraine. In the end, the United States took over the costs.
Later, Musk announced a new reason for shutting down Starlink in the temporarily occupied Crimea: he said that since the United States had imposed sanctions on Russia, he was prohibited from turning on satellite communications on the peninsula. And then the businessman said that during the Ukrainian counteroffensive, many people die for the sake of “insignificant” territorial gains
