In the spring of 2020, when President Donald J. Trump wrote messages on Twitter warning that increased reliance on mail-in ballots would lead to a “rigged election,” the platform ran a corrective, debunking his claims.

“Get the facts about mail-in voting,” a content label read. “Experts say mail-in ballots are very rarely linked to voter fraud,” the hyperlinked article declared.

This month, Elon Musk, who has since bought Twitter and rebranded it X, echoed several of Mr. Trump’s claims about the American voting system, putting forth distorted and false notions that American elections were wide open for fraud and illegal voting by noncitizens.

This time, there were no fact checks. And the X algorithm — under Mr. Musk’s direct control — helped the posts reach large audiences, in some cases drawing many millions of views.

Since taking control of the site, Mr. Musk has dismantled the platform’s system for flagging false election content, arguing it amounted to election interference.

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  • garretble@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    When I become a billionaire I hope you guys don’t let me become just a trash human like basically every billionaire.

    • CatsGoMOW@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      You typically need to be a trash human being to begin with in order to become a billionaire.

        • Ooops@kbin.social
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          10 months ago

          Which means your upbringing and education is ripe with coditioning to become a trash human. So that’s just another chicken/egg problem.