Elon Musk in a court agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission is required to get his tweets pre-authorized after being forced to pay $40 million in a fraud case ($20 from him, $20 million from Tesla). It is not clear he is doing so.
Musk, the richest man not just in the world, but in the history of the world, this week bought Twitter, the social media platform that likely has the strongest ability to shape public opinion. (Kind of like his tweets, the deal is subject to Federal Trade Commission approval.)
On Thursday Musk posted a demonstrably false tweet that suggests conservatives have not changed positions since 2008. It basically also says that liberals have moved much more to the extreme left. And it provides precisely zero evidence to back up the claim.
Many on Twitter blasted Musk, providing ample proof of just how wrong he is.
One of those leading the charge against Musk’s erroneous and divisive claim is Parker Malloy, a former Media Matters editor-at-large who just penned a piece at Substack that begins, “Maybe if Twitter had actually enforced its policies, it wouldn’t have become the type of hellhole a guy like Elon Musk would want to buy.”
Malloy points to a Pew Research Center study that states outright: “Republicans have moved further to the right than Democrats have to the left.”
Why is Musk’s erroneous tweet divisive? Because it’s false, yet feeding the already non-reality-based right wing — which is the exact concern many have about what the social media platform that shapes public opinion and legislation will become under Musk’s ownership.
Alexander Howard, the Director of the Digital Democracy Project, also pushed back on Musk’s claim. Pointing to a piece in The Economist, Howard tweets: “The GOP has shifted to the far-right since the 1990s, embracing illiberalism & anti-democratic views. The Democratic Party has not shifted far-left.”
Malloy also offered up this article from Roll Call:
Political scientist Rachel Bitecofer served up more data:
And a retort: “Get out of your silo,” she said to Musk.
Georgetown professor Don Moynihan pointed to a tweet from the World Bank-funded independent research institute that also disproves Musk’s false claim.
NBC News Senior reporter Ben Collins, who covers extremism, adds:
MSNBC anchor Mehdi Hasan:
Former GOP Congressman Joe Walsh tweeted that Musk “sounds just like Trump.”
Image by The Royal Society via Wikimedia and a CC license