The conflict is the biggest test yet for Musk's claim that Twitter can be a reliable source of information. Photo: GONZALO FUENTES/REUTERS
Elon Musk was accused of promoting anti-Semitism after he encouraged Twitter users to follow an account that repeatedly humiliated Jews in order to receive news about an attack on Israel.
Mr. Musk, owner and executive chairman of Twitter, which he owns. renamed X, advised users to follow two anonymous accounts that were accused of spreading disinformation and, in one case, pro-Hamas material.
He later deleted the tweet.
Both accounts known as «War Monitor» and «OSINTdefender» have blue checkmarks indicating they are paying for Twitter's premium service, which increases the number of their tweets in people's feeds.
p>On Sunday, Musk tweeted: “WarMonitors and senddefender are good programs for monitoring the war in real time. It's also worth keeping an eye on direct sources on the ground. Please add interesting options to the answers below.”
The War Monitor account had previously tweeted arguments urging people to «go worship a Jew, bro» and «mind your own business, Jew.»
p>
When a post later called the Palestinian victims of the airstrikes «martyrs,» Musk wrote: “Please use as specific words as possible, otherwise I must withdraw my recommendation to follow your account.”
He then deleted the original tweet, which had received millions of views.
Sam Sokol, a journalist from the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh, wrote: “The guy Musk recommends for information on the escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas is an anti-Semitic report with a history of spreading disinformation.”
The conflict is the biggest test to Musk's claims that Twitter can be a reliable source of information since he bought the company last November. He revamped the service, removing checks for public figures and journalists and giving a blue tick to anyone paying £11 a month.
Since then, the social networking site has been riddled with inaccurate and out-of-context material. Hamas carried out terrorist attacks on Israel on Saturday, according to researchers.
Many videos contain footage of old events. Other users said they were repeatedly shown graphic and violent videos and images on the service.
Israeli soldiers on the Gaza border strike back Photo: ATEF SAFADI/Shutterstock
One Twitter user claiming to be a BBC journalist received hundreds of retweets and thousands of views on a video showing footage from video games and falsely claiming that Cristiano Ronaldo was holding a Palestinian flag on football match.
Chris Clarkson, Conservative MP for Heywood and Middleton, commented on the report: «After some pretty appalling double-talk and stuff from the BBC yesterday and this morning, this is now from a BBC journalist.»
He later added : “It has been brought to my attention that the following is not a BBC journalist, but a fake account.”
Emerson Brooking, a disinformation expert at the Atlantic Council who recently advised the US Department of Defense on cyber policy, wrote on the platform: “The people who paid for the blue checks have a financial incentive for LARP [real-time role-playing games] as war. reporters, digging up old stories or fake footage. Elon Musk is making it possible.”
Mr Musk has previously clashed with the Anti-Defamation League, a group that campaigns against anti-Semitism. He has threatened to sue the organization, claiming it falsely accused him of anti-Semitism and pressured companies not to advertise on Twitter.
He recently met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who urged him to crack down on anti-Semitism on the platform.
Imran Ahmed, executive director of the Center to Counter Digital Hate, which was sued by Twitter over its criticism of the service, said: “Social media companies have proven that they are not interested, if not completely complicit, in spreading dangerous propaganda.
“X (Twitter) in particular bills itself as the best source of accurate, real-time information, but this could not be further from the truth.”
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