We Need To Take The Threat Of Elon Musk Seriously, Starting Now

He's a threat to public health, and to democracy.

by Bob Cesca

WASHINGTON, DC – The first step to solve any problem is to acknowledge that there’s a problem. Based on what I’ve observed, I don’t believe we’ve reached a point where Normals have accepted that Elon Musk and his shithole website are existential threats to the future of democracy.

Specifically, the moves Elon’s making with Twitter appear to be setting up a disinformation nightmare for the 2024 election.

The last time social media was this ripe for platforming fake news and propaganda, it was 2015 and 2016, and we know exactly what happened. Donald Trump narrowly won the presidency, losing the popular vote but winning the electoral college. If he manages to win again, quite possibly riding another wave of disinformation, he will not leave office. Ever.

This week alone, we learned several bits of shocking news on this front.

First, a bluecheck Twitter account with 1.6 million followers called “zerohedge” tweeted an article from its accompanying bogus website with the headline: “Zero Young Healthy Individuals Died Of COVID-19, Israeli Data Show.” The first huge warning sign about the article is it’s credited to “Tyler Durden,” a fictional character from the book/movie Fight Club. The second huge warning sign is that Elon Musk coyly replied: “Zero…” as if to concur with the article’s conclusion, while also elevating its visibility on the platform.

Predictably, the official Israel Ministry of Health account replied to Elon, completely debunking the fake news article shared by zerohedge. The MOH account wrote: “Elon, unfortunately this is not what the whole data shows. Fake news is dangerous.” True. It also posted several more replies in thread-form with additional facts in response to the geyser of lies in the piece.

The point is that stupid, stupid Elon helped to circulate obvious COVID disinformation. Again. As of this writing, his tweet and zerohedge’s tweet remain online. Worse, the zerohedge tweet has been seen 3.6 million times and Elon’s reply has been viewed 2.7 million times.

Imagine this same nonsense, but with disinformation about, say, Joe Biden’s health or the stability of the economy just before November 2024.

Believe me yet?

Making matters worse, Elon withdrew Twitter from participating in a European Union effort to weed out disinformation.

European Commissioner Thierry Breton tweeted that Twitter had pulled out of the EU’s disinformation “code of practice” that other major social media platforms have pledged to support. But he added that Twitter’s “obligation” remained, referring to the EU’s tough new digital rules taking effect in August.

“You can run but you can’t hide,” Breton said.

As Breton said, there could be an upside here in the form of Twitter being sanctioned by the EU. But so far, nothing’s happened. Nevertheless, this is yet another blindingly shocking instance of Elon simply ignoring the repeatedly proven threat of disinformation, namely in democratic nations.

And finally, according to a report by the Spanish news outlet El Pais, free speech absolutist Elon has capitulated to 83 percent of censorship requests from authoritarian regimes.

Since Musk’s takeover, the company has received 971 requests from governments (compared to only 338 in the six-month period from October 2021 to April 2022), fully acceding to 808 of them and partially acceding to 154. In the year prior to Musk taking control, Twitter agreed to 50% of such requests, in line with the compliance rate indicated in the company’s last transparency report (none have been published since October 2022). Following the change of ownership, that figure has risen to 83%, according to the analysis of the data by the technology information portal Rest of World.

To be clear, the article makes sure to note these are authoritarian non-liberal governments. And we all know these kinds of regimes have zero regard for free speech. Yet Elon genuflected at their feet, satisfying 962 of their requests. (Incidentally, after helping to silence opposition voices in Turkey’s elections, autocrat Recep Tayyip Erdogan won re-election by several percentage points. I hope he sends Elon an edible arrangement or a gift basket.)

See what’s happening? Elon’s bending the knee to dictators, while elevating disinformation. All while the 2024 election is growing larger in the windshield. While Twitter isn’t the juggernaut it used to be, its reach and influence remains immense. That’s why we need to pressure Congress and even the FBI to act now before it’s too late. But in order to have any sort of impact, we have to collectively acknowledge the orange anvil that’s hanging by a daisy over our heads, and the chaos agent, Elon, who’s about to let it drop.

Sadly, we’re not there yet. I wish I knew why.

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The Alt-Left Made Tara Reade, Then Handed Her To Vladimir Putin

Tara Reade was a product of Alt Left conspiracism, and is now the ultimate victim of it.

Tara Reade speaks to Sputnik in Moscow

by Ben Cohen

Tara Reade was paraded on Alt media channels in the wake of her sexual assault accusation against President Biden. The Right wing press was convinced they had found their “both sides” moment where they could finally claim with some authority that Joe Biden was “just as bad” as Donald Trump.

The Alt and Bernie Left were similarly giddy with excitement. After Reade was invited on to Katie Halper’s podcast to tell her story of alleged abuse, Alt Left journalists excoriated the evil “corporate media” and Biden supporters for not reporting on the story or disavowing their candidate:

I covered this extraordinary pile on back in 2020 (it is now the most read article ever on The Banter), and noted that: “I’ve been covering the far left and far right for so long now that whenever they claim have an airtight story proving malfeasance on the part of Democrats/the media/centrists etc, etc, you can be assured that it is almost never the case.”

And indeed it wasn’t. When real journalists began digging into the evidence, Reade’s story fell apart almost immediately.

Reade’s inconsistencies

Reade had not only changed her story multiple times, but her brother Collin Moulton, a key witness, also changed his story too. Moulton originally stated his sister told him Biden had not sexually assaulted her. After Reade changed her story to allege assault, Moulton claimed Reade had originally told him this too.

Reade claimed she made an official complaint about Biden when working for him in the Senate. There was no record of the complaint, and no one she claimed she spoke to about the harassment recalled ever meeting her.

Reade had a history of deceitful behavior that included theft, manipulation, lying, and fraud. She also had a very weird obsession with Vladimir Putin whom she described publicly as having “an alluring combination of strength with gentleness”. She also claimed “His [Putin’s] sensuous image projects his love for life, the embodiment of grace while facing adversity,” and that “Putin’s obvious reverence for women, children and animals, and his ability with sports is intoxicating to American women”.

The Russia connection

When covering this back in 2020, I mentioned Reade’s obsession with Putin and Russia to illustrate her wildly inconsistent political beliefs…

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