Timothy Snyder: Musk spread lies

The response of Elon Musk, as the owner of the social media X (formerly Twitter), to the war in Ukraine and Israel has been “utterly disastrous”, American historian Timothy Snyder said in his blog. “[Musk has] not only [been] spreading lies but confidence in those lies, training minds to mold emotional impressions to prejudice rather than to consider and reflect,” Snyder said.

Musk is only part of a larger propaganda problem, but he is responsible, the historian says. “From the people from whom we might expect the best, we get the worst.  But all of us are drifting to a world of shamanism.  A future in which we survive and explore depends on getting a technological balance right, and on getting social justice right.  But that depends on some human recognition of the deeper problems and some human ethical judgements. There is still a bit of time to make these adjustments; not much, though,” Snyder concluded. 

In September, the X social media was called to be more responsible in the fight against the spread of Russian disinformation. The Vice-President of the European Commission, Věra Jourová, made such a statement.

After the Hamas attack on Israel, the X social network was full of misinformation and confusion, Bloomberg wrote. Because of this, the European Union warned Musk that it may take measures against the social network, according to the letter of European Commissioner Thierry Breton to the American billionaire.

Earlier, it became known that last year, Musk secretly ordered to stop the work of Starlink near Crimea. This is how the billionaire tried to thwart Ukraine’s attack on the Russian navy to prevent an alleged escalation on the part of Moscow.

The full text of Timothy Snyder’s blog post can be accessed via the link.