Tag: elon musk

EU Hits Musk With X Probe On Possible ‘Disinformation’

European Commissioner Thierry Breton announced an investigation into Elon Musk’s ‘free speech’ social media platform X for failure to combat ‘illicit content and disinformation.’ This is the first major probe the EU has opened up on X since last year’s passing of a new law called the “Digital Services Act.” 

“Today we open formal infringement proceedings against @X” under the Digital Services Act, European Commissioner Breton wrote in a post on Monday morning on X. 

“The Commission will now investigate X’s systems and policies related to certain suspected infringements,” spokesman Johannes Bahrke told reporters in Brussels, adding, “It does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation.”

The investigation is centered on whether X failed to stop the spread of ‘illegal content’ (in other words, non-approved government narratives) and whether the Community Notes feature is enough to combat “information manipulation.” 

An investigation into X’s business practices was signaled by the EU as early as October, following the Israel-Gaza conflict in which officials warned that “terrorist and violent content and hate speech” was spreading on the social media platform. 

“The time of big online platforms behaving like they are ‘too big to care’ has come to an end,” Breton stated. 

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Democrats Demand Social Media Platforms Censor Abortion “Misinformation” With Direct Letters to Musk and Zuckerberg

House Democrats have issued a strong call to Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, urging them to address what they call the widespread issue of abortion “misinformation” on their social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and X.

These concerns were expressed in two letters from the House Oversight Committee.

We obtained a copy of the letter for you here.

The letters, spearheaded by Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the committee’s Ranking Member, request that Musk’s and Zuckerberg’s platforms urgently tackle the spread of false abortion information and provide Congress with briefings on this matter by December 14.

“Your company’s decision to keep these posts visible seems at odds with your Terms of Service that allow you to remove unlawful conduct on your platform,” the letter states. “Even more concerning is your company’s apparent double-standard when it comes to removing posts that you label ‘abortion advocacy’ or posts that offer legitimate medical and logistical advice for someone considering abortion, while allowing crisis pregnancy centers and anti-abortion advocates to spread false and misleading information regarding abortion.”

The committee, in its letters, highlights the nature of the allegedly misleading medical information and false content about abortion that is proliferating, especially on the platforms managed by Musk and Zuckerberg. This alleged misinformation, according to the committee, can lead to people doubting their healthcare providers and even their own judgment, posing significant health and safety risks.

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Elon Musk Warns Irish They Could Be Arrested For Having a Meme on Their Phone

Elon Musk has warned Irish people that they could literally be arrested and imprisoned for having a meme on their phone if new hate speech laws are passed.

The new laws were introduced in response to the Dublin riots, with authorities keen to punish people who were angry over an Algerian migrant stabbing three children in broad daylight.

The law creates a new crime of inciting violence or hatred againsts persons by possessing material which offends the “protected characteristics” of an individual or group.

Musk responded to the controversy by posting on X, “Language being proposed as law in Ireland means this could literally happen to you for having a meme on your phone.”

The post was accompanied by a video of a SWAT team smashing down a door and invading someone’s house.

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Elon Musk Announces “Thermonuclear” Lawsuit Against Media Matters

In a bold statement issued early Saturday, Elon Musk announced his intention to take aggressive legal action against Media Matters, a non-profit organization that pushes for online censorship. He accused the group and its associates of grossly distorting the user experience on his social media platform, X.

Musk’s planned lawsuit, which he describes as “thermonuclear,” targets not only Media Matters but also “all those who colluded” with them.

Musk’s response comes in the wake of a Media Matters report published on Thursday.

The report alleged that on X, advertisements from prominent companies like Apple, Disney, factions of NBCUniversal, IBM, Oracle, and Comcast were being displayed alongside content promoting “antisemitic conspiracy theories.”

In a fiery critique, Musk condemned these allegations as a blatant attempt to tarnish X’s reputation. He asserted that such attacks stem from a broader agenda to suppress free speech.

Musk views the actions of Media Matters and similar groups as part of a concerted effort by certain activist organizations and legacy media to stifle the freedom of expression on X.

According to Musk, these entities perceive X as a significant threat to their ideological narratives and the interests of their financial backers.

Further, Musk highlighted the tactics used by these groups, which he claims involve manipulating advertisers on X through deceptive means. By doing so, they aim to jeopardize the platform’s revenue streams.

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Elon Musk’s Free Speech Stance Is “Dangerous”, Columbia Journalism Fellow Warns

A Columbia University journalism fellow said Elon Musk’s support for free speech on X, formerly known as Twitter, is both “immoral” and “dangerous.”

Anika Navaroli used to work on Twitter’s “Trust and Safety Team,” the unit within the company that censored information, oftentimes true. Musk eliminated the team. She now is a senior fellow at Columbia’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism.

“What has now become clear is that Musk’s vision of speech on X is one of the greatest dangers to democracy, especially leading into the 2024 elections,” Navaroli (pictured) wrote on Thursday in The Hill.

She praised workers like herself for “thanklessly” working behind the scenes to defend “institutions.”

Navoli and her co-workers, in her telling, “were one of the last defenses to American democracy leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021 mob attack on Congress” which “led ultimately to our deplatforming former President Donald Trump.”

She wrote:

Much like poll workers, social media trust and safety workers toil thanklessly and behind the scenes for years to protect the safety and integrity of our most vital democratic institutions. Rather than invest in that crucial work, Musk took a page out of Trump’s playbook, repeatedly and publicly attacking trust and safety workers. He unleashed the Twitter Files, which revealed the names, images, and contact information of former Twitter trust and safety employees.

The journalism fellow said speech is “evolving,” “complicated,” and “sticky.”

“It requires tradeoffs, flexibility, and tough decisions. It shouldn’t be dictated by an autocratic CEO with absolutist ideologies,” Navoli wrote, repeating prior statements she has made on the subject.

“Instead of asking just free speech versus safety to say free speech for whom and public safety for whom,” she previously said during a Congressional hearing.

“So whose free expression are we protecting at the expense of whose safety and whose safety are we willing to allow to go the winds so that people can speak freely.”

She is correct in that our conceptions of speech are complicated – I do not think there is some broad First Amendment right for the authors of pornographic books targeting kids to have their works in libraries.

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Self-proclaimed AI savior Elon Musk will launch his own artificial intelligence TOMORROW – as he tries to avoid tech destroying humanity

Elon Musk is set to roll out the first model of his AI-powered system, xAI, on Saturday, one day after he proclaimed the tech is the biggest risk to humanity. 

The billionaire said Friday that he is opening up early access to a select group, but details of who has not been shared.

‘In some important respects, it (xAI’s new model) is the best that currently exists,’ the Tesla CEO said on Friday. 

Musk, who has been critical of Big Tech’s AI efforts and censorship, said earlier this year that he would launch a maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe to rival Google‘s Bard and Microsoft‘s Bing AI. 

Musk revealed his startup on July 12, 2023 by launching a dedicated X account for the AI company and spares website.

The official website only shows an ambitious vision of xAI – that it was developed ‘to understand the true nature of the universe.’

Many of the founding members are skilled with large language models.

The xAI team includes Igor Babuschkin, a DeepMind researcher, Zihang Dai, a research scientist at Google Brain and Toby Pohlen, also from DeepMind.

‘Announcing formation of @xAI to understand reality,’ Musk posted on what was Twitter last year. 

He then shared another post highlighting how the date of xAI’s release is to honor Douglas Adams’ ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.’

When adding up the month, day and year, you get 42.

The number is the answer a supercomputer gives to ‘the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.’

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Musk to provide Starlink access to Gaza

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has said that he will provide satellite internet access to “internationally recognized aid organizations” in Gaza via his Starlink network. Phone and internet lines went down in the enclave after a heavy Israeli bombardment on Friday.

Musk made his announcement on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday, stating that SpaceX’s Starlink division would “support connectivity” with the besieged strip.

There are apparently a number of Starlink terminals in Gaza, but in a separate post on Saturday, Musk said that none of these devices had attempted to communicate with the satellite network. “It is not clear who has authority for ground links in Gaza, but do we know that no terminal has requested a connection in that area,” he wrote on X.

Internet and cell phone services stopped working in Gaza on Friday night after a wave of Israeli airstrikes. Gaza’s largest telecommunications operator, Paltel, announced that its infrastructure had been totally destroyed in the bombing, which preceded the deployment of Israeli ground troops to the enclave.

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You’re Not Supporting Ukraine Enough Until the Nuclear Blast Hits Your Face

What happened to Elon Musk this past week showcases how completely unhinged and dangerous U.S. policy to Ukraine has become. The condemnation began when the Washington Post published excerpts from a new biography on Musk revealing that he turned down a Ukrainian request to help launch a major sneak attack in September 2022 on the Crimean port of Sevastopol. There were numerous, legitimate reasons why Musk refused to activate his Starlink internet services for Ukraine to carry out the unprecedented, surprise attack on Russian naval vessels: Musk was providing terminals to Ukraine for free; he was not on a military contract at that time; the late-night request came directly from the Ukrainian—not American—government; and Starlink had never been activated over Crimea because of U.S. sanctions on Russia. Most importantly, Musk was concerned that enabling the attack could result in serious “conflict escalation.” He worried that he was being asked to turn on Starlink for a “Pearl Harbor like attack” and had no wish to “proactively take part in a major act of war,” possibly provoking a Russian nuclear response.

In response to this nuclear aversion, Musk was called “evil” by a high-level Ukrainian official and “traitor” by American war enthusiasts. Rachel Maddow on the Russia conspiracy network MSNBC said Musk was “intervening to try to stop Ukraine from winning the war.” Not to be outdone, CNN‘s Jake Tapper described Elon as a “capricious billionaire” who “sabotaged a military operation by Ukraine, a U.S. ally,” an act that demands “repercussions.” For his part, chief Iraq war salesman-turned-Democrat-darling, David Frum, said that Musk must be stripped of his U.S. government contracts for not reflexively acceding to the Ukrainian Starlink request, and former “progressive,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, called for an immediate Congressional investigation “to ensure foreign policy is conducted by the government and not by one billionaire.”

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Musk ordered shutdown of Starlink in Crimea 

Elon Musk personally intervened to stop a Ukrainian attack on Crimea last year due to fears of a nuclear war, CNN reported on Thursday, quoting an excerpt from the upcoming biography of the SpaceX and Tesla founder.

As Ukrainian drones approached the Crimean coast, they “lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly,” according to the book by Walter Isaacson, scheduled to be published next week. 

Musk had secretly ordered SpaceX engineers to shut off the Starlink signal near Crimea, according to this account, concerned that Russia might use nuclear weapons in reaction to what he described as a “mini-Pearl Harbor.”

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MSNBC’s ‘Fitness=Fascism’ Article Resurfaces As Rogan And Musk Tweet It Out

An MSNBC article from last year that seriously argued being fit and healthy its a ‘gateway drug’ to becoming a ‘Neo-Nazi’ has resurfaced after both Joe Rogan and Elon Musk tweeted about how insane it is.

MSNBC ‘columnist‘ Cynthia Miller-Idriss created the ludicrous piece in March of 2022, claiming “the far right has taken advantage of pandemic at-home fitness trends to expand its decade-plus radicalization of physical mixed martial arts.”

The writer also pointed to a separate report that claimed “a network of online ‘fascist fitness’ chat groups on the encrypted platform Telegram are recruiting and radicalizing young men with neo-Nazi and white supremacist extremist ideologies.”

“Initially lured with health tips and strategies for positive physical changes, new recruits are later invited to closed chat groups where far-right content is shared,” the article continued.

MSNBC Piece Claims ‘Health & Fitness’ is New Gateway Drug to the Far-Right

https://summit.news/2022/03/25/msnbc-claims-health-fitness-is-new-gateway-drug-to-the-far-right/embed/#?secret=jcKqHcMlp3

Podcast king Rogan tweeted out a link to the piece Monday.

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