Trump, Trump, and Truth Social: Trump’s Tweet on Twitter is not a good thing for Twitter, but it is a mistake for the platform to stop banging Trump

Speaking in May, a few weeks after he began his bid to take over Twitter, Musk argued, “Banning Trump from Twitter didn’t end Trump’s voice, it will amplify it among the right and this is why it’s morally wrong and flat out stupid.” Musk believes that permanent bans are not good for the platform and could open the door for conspiracy theorists to return.

“I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump; I think that was a mistake,” Musk said at a conference in May, pledging to reverse the ban were he to become the company’s owner.

But relations between the pair seem to have soured since, with the men publicly trading barbs over the summer. When Trump called Musk abullsh*t artist, Musk responded by writing, “I don’t hate the man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat and sail into the sunset.”

In the morning of July 8th, Donald Trump went to Truth Social, a platform he founded with people close to him, to claim that he had won the 2020 presidential vote in Wisconsin despite all evidence to the contrary.

A far cry from the hundreds of thousands of responses to his posts on Facebook and Twitter had been generated before those services suspended their megaphones, barely 8,000 people shared that missive on Truth Social.

Within 48 hours of Mr. Trump’s post, more than one million people saw his claim on at least dozen other sites. According to The New York Times analysis, it appeared on multiple websites, from which he’s been banned.

The Los Angeles Times’ “Gaylophobic” Comment on the “Delusions and Inconsistencies” of the Sept. 11 Attack on Pelosi

The spurious theory traces back to an incorrect early news report and a handful of pieces of evidence that its proponents have spun wildly out of context. It is contrary to the explanation police and law enforcement have given- that the suspect in the attack broke into Pelosis house and attacked him.

Those pushing the “gay lover” theory have pointed to a handful of purported pieces of evidence based on falsehoods and twisted storylines. The local TV station that originally reported that DePape was in his underwear has since changed their story and removed the assertion. Police have denied that there was third person who opened the door to Pelosi’s house.

“There is absolutely no evidence that Mr. Pelosi knew this man,” San Francisco Police Chief William Scott told CNN in an interview. “As a matter of fact, the evidence indicates the exact opposite.”

Miller- Idriss pointed out that the population is unable to discern what is true from what is not, and this spreading of misinformation undermines that. “People are willing to accept conspiracy theories when they reinforce the narrative they already hold in their head.”

Devotees have latched onto a recording in which Pelosi refers to DePape as a friend and sounds confused.

He said they spent a lot of energy pushing back ridiculous conspiracy theories to make sure people were focused on the team. These things are harmful to society and the victims involved, so it’s sad we’re here.

One of the first widely shared tweets endorsing the theory appears to have come at 11:36 a.m. on Friday, the day of the attack, gaining more than 2,700 retweets.

Donald Trump, Jr., and Sebastian Gorka explicitly endorsed the theory after a few days, and also cited it approvingly. He deleted the picture of Nancy Pelosi and the quote from DePape after referring to him as a male prostitute.

There are many right-wing lies endorsed by DePape on his Facebook posts last year. He posted multiple videos produced by My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell falsely alleging that the 2020 election was stolen, linked to websites claiming Covid vaccines were deadly, and shared videos questioning the January 6, 2021attack. The page was taken down after a CNN review, but several of DePape’s relatives confirmed the page belonged to him.

David DePape’s own social media and blog postings show that he himself was steeped in conspiracy theories in the months and years before the attack – from musings about QAnon to antisemitic rants to claims of a looming takeover by the global elite.

Miller-Idriss, the American University professor, said that prominent figures carelessly spreading misinformation can lead to wider impacts on society.

“It’s dangerous because it undermines peoples’ sense of truth, it helps them further divorce from reality,” she said. “It is a situation where they spread it further – and they pass it on.”

The scene of Jennifer Klum outside a Halloween party turned into a meme: the raw, raw, step-and-repeat nature of reality

A photographer shoots a picture of Klum on the blue carpet that is actually on the floor. It would be a traditional step-and-repeat, except she can barely walk. She is covered in skin folds that are almost raw. The accent of her is unmistakable when Entertainment Weekly puts a microphone in front of her. Tom Kaulitz is in full fishing gear, pretending to use her as bait.

This was not a dream. It was the scene outside the Project Runway star’s infamous Halloween bash. But it might as well have been a hallucination, some bizarre after-effect of prolonged illness.

Or, at least, that’s how it felt when images and video of the scene ricocheted through social media this week, instantly becoming a meme. But really, the images themselves weren’t that jarring; what was unsettling was thinking it was just as likely they were real as that they were fake. It was realizing that what’s perceived as “real” is an increasingly nebulous thing.

Source: https://www.wired.com/story/end-of-reality/

The #TrumpIsDead campaign to expose the falsehoods and lies of Elon Musk on Twitter: The case of Paul Pelosi

No doubt, this line of thought is prevalent now following Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter. The Telsa CEO isn’t putting his council in place yet, but a platform that could become a haven of falsehoods and trollies looms large. Every tweet now served up with a grain of salt. That worm smiling at an ET microphone could’ve been a 4chan meme as easily as it was one of the most famous models in the world.

People are already testing the boundaries of what can be said. Like, for example, #TrumpIsDead. It was apparent to users of the platform that misinformation could easily spread under Musk after they started spreading rumors that the former president had died. The hoax didn’t fool news outlets, but #TrumpIsDead did trend, leading to a Twitter event and at least one fact-check report from Reuters about a duped CNN headline.

The most obvious example is #TrumpIsDead, something easily proven or disproven through many sources. The lies are close enough to reality to reel you in. The conspiracy theories mess with the gut instincts of the tried and true skeptics. It seems that #TrumpIsDead started to trend in response to the fact that Musk had published an article full of false rumors about Paul Pelosi, Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband.

The fact that Musk shared the article made it even more unnerving, as he replied to Hillary Clinton with a text saying there might be more to it than meets the eye. This is an old trick. People will begin to question the color of their hair as they start to doubt themselves. What’s real when everything on a platform can be two or three clicks away from the truth? What happens when the person running the platform you’re on is a “I’m just asking questions” guy?

But truly, asking more questions is what people should be doing. The New Yorker magazine published a story about David DePape and the online campaign to label him as the attacker of Paul Pelosi. In the days after the incident, internet detectives had been searching his online history for clues to his affiliations. Some claimed he was right-wing, others said he was “on the left.” Kang, though, had a different take, noting that often the connections made between political rhetoric or mental health and violent acts have little bearing on what really happened. Often, people look online seeking the truth, but all that matters is what they believe.