EU warns Musk to remove illegal content from his platform after Hamas' terrorist attacks.
Today, the EU has sent a formal letter to Elon Musk about X/Twitter being used to disseminate illegal content & disinformation in the EU in the wake of the terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel.
Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, has given him 24 hours to take crisis measures and report to the European Commission.
Musk seems to be completely unaware of the violent and terrorist content that appears to circulate on his platform, or he doesn't care since he answered:
I applaud this action of the EU to protect its citizens against the risks stemming from disinformation and illegal content. In an age with a sheer limitless amount of information at our fingertips, the quest for truth can often feel like a mirage shimmering on the horizon, forever just out of reach.
Misinformation
The platform formerly known as Twitter is nowadays riddled with misinformation, bias, and outright falsehoods. I experience that daily while trying to follow developments in complex and rapidly developing news stories such as large-scale conflicts. Discerning fact from fiction and propaganda becomes a daily challenge.
For many, social media platforms, like the one we used to know as Twitter, are now the oracles of our times, dispensing news and opinions at the speed of light and in larger quantities than we could ever have imagined in our youth when we waited for the daily newspaper to arrive. But sadly, this digital oasis turns out to be swamped with the falsehoods of manipulators of the news.
Verification badge
Twitter used to be the go-to place when a news story developed. Knowing reliable sources was a way to quickly get informed and be ahead of the formal news cycle in the traditional media. But increasingly, I find myself using Twitter to open tweets that share the latest newsflashes as reported by well-known newspapers and television channels; a blue verification badge no longer guarantees that you are reading from a verified source.
Elon Musk, who bought Twitter last year, has opened a Pandora's box of disruptions and dilemmas. Under his rule, Twitter has undergone a metamorphosis. Under the veil of promoting free speech, it develops into a more right-wing populist channel that has resurrected suspended accounts, including the one of Donald Trump.
The acid test for Musk's leadership lies in the platform's potential impact on issues as volatile as the Israel-Gaza conflict. Twitter could have been a platform for open dialogue with diverse voices, including those reporting from the region and independent journalists.
Instead, Elon's rebranded X has given bullhorns to both sides in a gladiatorial contest, a recipe for propaganda warfare and chaos. His 'freedom' approach led to many videos shared on his platform that I wish I hadn't seen and shouldn't be there.
What can we do?
I hope Thierry Breton's letter will lead to positive results. Still, there is also the question of what we can do as consumers of social media news and opinions. It was never wise to rely entirely on Twitter, which, even in the good old days, has never been a fully reliable oracle for the truth. It is always wise to diversify our sources and scrutinize the facts.
Let me illustrate this last point with today's photo of a rain-filled puddle on a path along the Ottawa River. I deliberately posted it upside down to misguide you as an illustration of the twisted information landscape we navigate.
Much like that puddle, news can easily be twisted into a distorted reflection of reality based on its presentation and framing. A single conflict isn't just a matter of black and white; it's a kaleidoscope of colors influenced by various factors, like history, religion, geography, politics, or climate change. If you give the photo more than a shallow glance, you can grasp what it truly is; it's like learning to peer through the glass of distorted news.
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The Back Page:
Agree - I stopped my Twitter account because I couldn’t stand the thought of Musk benefiting from ad revenue from one more person! I used to get most of my news from Twitter and miss the variety of voices, from Ukraine to the UK.
I doubt a letter from the EU will have impact upon an individual who loves playing the bad boy. There are two things melon enjoys and these are 1) melon and 2) chaos. That's it.
When I joined Twitter in May of 2011 I was amazed at the content. Local power behind creating the first and largest No Kill community in the country with Austin, TX. The First Arab Spring. Alex's commitment to environmental security. Learning pandemic news directly from epidemiologists.
Since melon has tried his best to wreck Twitter I have deleted many accounts, surrounded myself with those I trust for correct information, blocked ads and hundreds of porn bots, vet news before sharing. My favorite course when studying photography and photojournalism was Ethics. Be accurate, resist staged opportunities, avoid presenting one's own bias in a photo, treat all subjects with respect and dignity with special consideration to the vulnerable, maintain the integrity of the image in editing. There are more but these are the most important to me.
Integrity. The media and the world of disseminating information has lost its way with the introduction of clickbait. The word clickbait says it all.
Be careful out there.