Misinformation surged on Twitter after Elon Musk took over: report

San Francisco: Twitter is struggling with content moderation after mass layoffs and the paid verification has worked in the favour of conspiracy theorists. Both factors contributed to the rise of misinformation on the social media platform.

Experts say that Elon Musk's takeover and the changes he made led to the boom in misinformation. The billionaire tech entrepreneur has denied the allegations.

Popular American diaper company Huggies found itself in a mess last month after false paedophelia allegations. This has since been traced back to Vincent Kennedy, a supporter of the QAnon conspiracy movement, reported AFP. He was banned from Twitter after the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. After Musk bought Twitter, Kennedy was reinstated.

Kennedy started the allegations against Huggies by posting a picture of a Disney-themed diaper featuring Simba, a character from "The Lion King," and circled triangles and spiral swirls that were part of the design. This is traced back to the widely debunked conspiracy theory that the shapes are recognized by the FBI as coded signals used by paedophiles. He also wrote, "Once you truly awake you ain't going back to sleep."

Election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell told his followers to melt down electronic voting machines and use them as prison bars. The false narrative painting the LGBTQ+ community as groomers have also increased on the platform.

Travis Brown, a software developer based in Berlin, estimates that 67,000 similar accounts that were once suspended for violations including incitement of violence, harassment, and misinformation have been reinstated by Elon Musk, a self-proclaimed free speech absolutist. He said that the list was incomplete and the actual number of restored accounts could be higher.

Jesse Lehrich, co-founder of the advocacy group Accountable Tech, told AFP that there's no doubt that the flood of toxic content from repeat offenders Elon has re-platformed is driving real-world harm. "When you reinstate the architects of the Jan. 6 insurrection as democracy teeters on the brink, when you give a massive platform to notorious neo-Nazis amidst a surge in anti-Semitism when you re-platform influential purveyors of medical disinformation in the middle of a pandemic, there are going to be real-world consequences."

When Musk was asked about the resurgence of misinformation, he claimed the BBC interviewer was lying. He said, "You said you see more hateful content, but you can't even name a single one."

Imran Ahmed of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) said that Twitter is monetising hate at an unprecedented rate. The organisation's research says that just five Twitter accounts peddling the "grooming" narrative generate up to $6.4 million (roughly Rs. 52 Crores) in annual advertising revenue.