(PM.) Elon Musk made it clear that he is no fan of many of the self-proclaimed “fact checkers” that are commonly promoted by legacy media outlets and social media platforms alike; the tech mogul said such people are “in fact some of the biggest liars.”
Musk’s comments came after X user @alx made a proposition that those who get tagged by X’s ‘Community Notes‘ notification for lacking key context in various posts have a clown emoji slapped by their name for two weeks.
“If you get shamed by@CommunityNotes three times in a week like @GlennKesslerWP, your Verified Check becomes a Clown Emoji for Two weeks,” he posted online. “Thoughts? cc: @Elonmusk.”
New Twitter Feature idea: If you get shamed by @CommunityNotes three times in a week like @GlennKesslerWP, your Verified Check becomes a Clown Emoji for Two weeks.
Thoughts?
cc: @ElonMusk pic.twitter.com/kgerW1s0Hd
— ALX 🎃 (@alx) April 5, 2023
Great idea 😂
It is interesting to see how many so-called “fact checkers” are in fact some of the biggest liars.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 8, 2023
“Great idea,” Musk responded along with a crying and laughing emoji. “It is interesting to see how many so-called ‘fact checkers’ are in fact some of the biggest liars.”
It is no secret that many of these, as Musk describes them, “so-called ‘fact checkers'” present quite a dishonest track record. Take for instance PolitiFact, which posted a “fact-check” on an article by conservative commentator Mark Levin titled, “‘America is dead’—Joe Biden actually said this at his Iowa rally.” According to the organization, the article lacked “context” because Biden was talking about the Covid-19 death toll rather than the death of the United States.
There is just one problem—Levin’s article quite literally quotes Biden as having been speaking about Covid-19. In other words, the “context” was there the entire time.
