Last week, the European Union presented preliminary findings following an investigation into X and its verified accounts. As you may be aware, verification on X these days means you have simply chosen to pay the company ~$8 for a Blue tick and some additional features. The findings were brutal to say the least with the EU highlighting how the Blue tick deceives users and “negatively affects users’ ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts and the content they interact with”.
Naturally, X owner Elon Musk hated this and went on the offensive claiming the EU wanted to enter into a secret deal where it would censor accounts without anybody having knowledge of those bans. As such, Musk appears to want to head to the courts to fight this even though he risks losing 6 percent of X’s global revenue should X take no actions to address the EU’s concerns. Unfortunately, at the weekend something happened that should concern Musk about his platform.
On Sunday morning, news broke that former US president Donald Trump had been shot in a failed assassination attempt during a rally in Pennsylvania. The former president’s ear was clipped by the shooter, but one spectator was killed and two others were injured. What followed this event on X was nothing short of a mess.
Misinformation spread quickly and by midday on Sunday I had seen five different photos from people all claiming their image was of the shooter. These photos included an Italian.