Social media conflicts between Palestine and Israel are rampant with false information, and Musk recommends following "toxic" accounts

Musk said, "X is a platform for maximizing truth. We pursue truthThe latest outbreak of violence between Israel and Hamas poses a test for the reformed social media platform X (formerly Twitter): how can accurate data be conveyed during major crises amidst a flood of false information?Meanwhile, X's owner Elon Musk personally advised users to follow accounts notorious for spreading lies

Musk said, "X is a platform for maximizing truth. We pursue truth

The latest outbreak of violence between Israel and Hamas poses a test for the reformed social media platform X (formerly Twitter): how can accurate data be conveyed during major crises amidst a flood of false information?

Meanwhile, X's owner Elon Musk personally advised users to follow accounts notorious for spreading lies. A few days ago, he also ordered the closure of the title display of article links on the X platform, resulting in a decrease in news website traffic.

Musk deleted after posting

For real-time tracking of wars, @ WarMonitors and @ senddeferer are very good, "Musk posted to his 150 million fan account on X on October 8th local time. This post was viewed 11 million times within 3 hours and received thanks from both accounts.

Subsequently, after many X users raised past errors with two accounts, Musk deleted this post and issued another one pleading with people to "please approach the truth as close as possible, even if it's something you don't like". "This platform is committed to maximizing the signal/noise of the human collective." On October 9th, Musk added in a comment, "X is a platform that maximizes the truth. We pursue the truth

The two accounts recommended by Musk were both important disseminators of false news about the explosion near the White House in May this year. Emerson T. Brooking, a researcher at the Atlantic Council Digital Forensics Research Lab, posted that @ sendsender is an "absolutely toxic account" that often posts incorrect and unverifiable content@ WarMonitors once argued with others about Israel and religious issues, and a year ago posted that "the vast majority of people in the media and banks are Zionists.

Musk also responded to these two accounts, increasing their visibility, with each account having over 600000 followers. He continued to criticize the "mainstream media" and told users that they should trust X.

According to the Washington Post, researchers say that the new conflict between Palestine and Israel is a test of how the revised version of X conveys accurate information during major crises, and the results are not ideal.

Mike Caulfield, a research scientist at the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington, said there is ample evidence to suggest that X failed the stress test. Enter the platform and search for Israel or Gaza - you don't have to scroll far to find suspicious or exposed information

In addition, some accounts on X have attracted users' attention to photos or videos of attacks that were unrelated to this conflict years ago, as well as false claims that Iran or other countries were involved in the conflict. An account imitating the Jerusalem Post mistakenly reported that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu had been sent to a hospital, receiving over 700000 views. Many accounts promote a false document claiming that the White House has approved $8 billion in aid to Israel. Someone has also released videos of buildings collapsing in Syria in the past, claiming that they are located in Gaza.

BBC Fact Checker Shayan Sardarizadeh pointed out that a video that was viewed 230000 times was not a Hamas armed shooting of Israeli helicopters, but rather a scene from the game.

X stops displaying linked article titles

Researchers say that since Musk took control of Twitter almost a year ago, the reliability of this social platform has greatly decreased. He no longer issues "verification" to media accounts, stops marking some accounts as government affiliated accounts, making it difficult for users to understand whether the accounts are real and authoritative, and begins to offer monetary incentives to accounts with high user engagement, rewarding traffic rather than accuracy.

According to a study published by the European Commission at the end of August, the propaganda about the Russia-Ukraine conflict on X this year is more widespread than last year. People who purchase blue verification tags have an economic motivation to act as war reporters and engage in LARP (real person role-playing) by digging into old stories or fake scenes, "Brooking wrote." Elon Musk achieved this

Last week, X no longer displayed the original title of the link in the tweet, only the preview card image of the link and the domain name of the source. Musk's reason for the change is that it will greatly improve aesthetics. Experts say this will reduce traffic to news websites.

A reporter from the technology media TheVerge explained that news articles cannot display titles on X, only preview card images.

Columnist Philip Bump commented that Twitter was initially created to share the latest updates with friends through short message push, but it has proven that this simple broadcasting mechanism is beneficial for wider information sharing. Twitter is particularly useful for news organizations and consumers, as it allows users to see which stories are being reported and how they are being reported, watch events happen in real-time, and share interesting stories. However, Musk's views on the media industry and Twitter were poisoned by falling into right-wing ideology.

According to Axios' report last week, the traffic entering news websites from X has significantly decreased in recent months. Musk wrote in response to a post about the report, "Our algorithm attempts to optimize the time spent on X, so links won't receive too much attention because if people click to leave, it will take less time." "The best way is to publish long format content on this platform

On October 4th, Musk wrote on X, "I almost no longer read traditional news." "What's the point of reading 1000 words of content that was already posted on X a few days ago

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