PoorAndDangerous
Superstar
Elon asking why no one has tried to assassinate Kamala or Biden and then today tweeting non stop about how democrats violent rhetoric are the reasons why Trump has been targeted twice now is insane.
General Elon Musk Fukkery Thread
- Thread starter Armchair Militant
- Start date
Musk's X working again in Brazil after finding a way around ban
The social media platform X, formerly Twitter, was banned in the country on 31 August.
www.bbc.com
X working again in Brazil as Musk finds way around ban
10 minutes ago
Ben Derico and Lily Jamali
BBC News
Some X users in Brazil have said they can once again access the social media website, the BBC has learned.
This comes after the platform, formerly known as Twitter, was banned in the country on 30 August.
The change was made possible after the company, which is owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, moved their service to servers hosted by Cloudflare, according to ABRINT, the country's leading trade group for Internet Service Providers (ISP).
The change makes it much harder to block applications on phones, the trade group said.
X and Brazil’s telecom agency Anatel have not responded to requests for comment.
ABRINT said on Wednesday that the new system used dynamic internet protocols (IPs) that changed constantly. By contrast, the previous system had relied on specific IPs that could be more easily be blocked.
Basílio Rodriguez Pérez, ABRINT advisor, said those dynamic IPs could also be linked to critical services within Brazil.
"Many of these IPs are shared with other legitimate services, such as banks and large internet platforms, making it impossible to block an IP without affecting other services."
That includes PIX, which millions of Brazilians depend on to make digital payments.
Mr Pérez said he was certain that X made the change on Wednesday to get around the nation’s ban on the platform.
“There is no doubt that this could have happened by chance or unintentionally,” Mr Pérez said.
Some experts say Cloudflare is well-positioned to help Brazil reinforce the ban.
“Actually, I think the ban would be even more effective if Cloudflare really cooperates with the government,” said Felip Autran, a constitutional lawyer in Brasilia, the country’s capital.
“I think they will, since they are such a huge provider for many Brazilian enterprises and also the government.”
Cloudflare declined to comment when contacted by the BBC.
The platform was banned in the country last month after failing to meet a court deadline to appoint a new legal representative in the country.
It marked the most significant development in a feud between Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Mr Musk that began in April, when the judge ordered the suspension of dozens of X accounts for allegedly spreading disinformation.
In his August ruling, Justice Moraes gave companies, including Apple and Google, a five-day deadline to remove X from its app stores and block its use on iOS and Android devices.
He added that individuals or businesses that are found to still be accessing X by using virtual private networks (VPNs) could be fined.
It's unclear what response the country might have to the platform finding a way around the ban.
Brazil is said to be one of the largest markets for Mr Musk's social media network.
How Elon Musk amplified content from a suspected Russian election interference plot
Musk, apparently unaware of the company’s Russia funding source, engaged with content from Tenet Media and its creators at least 60 times.
www.nbcnews.com
How Elon Musk amplified content from a suspected Russian election interference plot
Musk, apparently unaware of the company’s Russia funding source, engaged with content from Tenet Media and its creators at least 60 times.
Elon Musk in New York City on Sept. 8. Jean Catuffe / GC Images via Getty Images file
Sept. 18, 2024, 3:32 PM EDT
By David Ingram
As Elon Musk increasingly weighed in on politics in the last several years, he used his massive following on his social media app X to repeatedly amplify content from a company that appears to be at the center of an alleged Russian covert operation to manipulate U.S. public opinion ahead of the 2024 election.
Musk, one of the world’s richest people, boosted content from creators and accounts tied to Tenet Media at least 60 times, resharing the operation’s posts and engaging in back-and-forth replies with Tenet’s paid pundits on X.
Musk’s posts, shared with his 198 million followers, put Russia-aligned conservative talking points in front of possibly tens of millions of eyeballs, according to the viewership data published by X, and he did so apparently without knowledge of the alleged Russian money behind the operation.
An earlier NBC News review of Tenet’s videos combined with details from government indictments illustrated how the company amplified conservatives who had already embraced many talking points favored by former President Donald Trump and Russia, in line with the country’s broader propaganda goals.
In July, Musk reshared a post from a Tenet Media account defending comments by Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, that “you won’t have to vote anymore” if Trump returns to the White House, and Musk’s reshare received 28 million views, according to X.
Tenet Media appeared to seek out Musk’s attention, posting about Musk or tagging his account more than 50 times since the media company’s launch last November, often on the subject of Trump and the presidential election.
Tenet launched last year as a kind of supergroup for conservative pundits seemingly out of nowhere, bringing together established podcasters such as Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson with younger and less experienced influencers.
Tenet has ceased releasing new material since federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment on Sept. 4 charging two employees of Russia-backed media network RT of directing a $10 million scheme to launder pro-Russian views through conservative American commentators. FBI Director Christopher Wray said the operation was an attempt to “trick Americans into unwittingly consuming foreign propaganda.”
Tenet and its stable of pundits were not specifically named in the indictment, but Tenet’s makeup matches the indictment’s description of a media company that called itself a “network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues.” Since the indictment was unsealed, numerous high-profile Tenet creators have spoken out calling themselves “victims.”
If the allegations in the indictment prove true (or similar), Musk would serve as a high-profile example of how Russia-associated actors were able to bait a target into engaging with their content and sharing it.
Musk can bring enormous attention to an account with his posts because he has the largest following on X. And even a reply from him can boost another account, because replies sometimes show up in people’s feeds.
Musk also shared Russia-aligned talking points outside the context of the conspiracy alleged in the recent indictment, according to a report Tuesday by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Citing records from a Russian disinformation campaign, the news service said that an internet meme denigrating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and shared on X last year by Musk was made by a Moscow-based company called Social Design Agency.
Musk did not respond to an email Tuesday asking about the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty report and about his sharing of Tenet Media content. Representatives for X also did not respond to a request for comment about Musk or about X’s handling of Tenet content.
In posts on X, Musk has appeared unconcerned about Russia’s influence operations. The day the Tenet Media indictment was announced, Musk reacted with the “tears of joy” emoji to another user’s unproven theory that the covert project may have backfired by causing infighting among conservatives.
The day after the indictment dropped, Musk accused The Associated Press of pushing anti-Trump “propaganda” in its coverage of Tenet Media. And he posted in defense of the right-wing podcasters \ Tenet had retained, agreeing with another conservative commentator, Ben Shapiro, that the men were deceived.
Other commentators have accused the people paid by Tenet of being too easily deceived and of failing to ask enough questions of the people paying them.
Josephine Lukito, who studies Russian disinformation as an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s journalism school, said Musk’s amplification of Tenet content fit a pattern for the tech billionaire.
“As the owner of a social media platform, Musk certainly should be vetting content he shares more. But it doesn’t surprise me that he is not apologetic about this, as Musk has, in the past, shared misleading or inaccurate information without, seemingly, any concern,” Lukito said in an email. (Musk has shared misleading claims about anti-Muslim riots in the U.K. and inaccurate information about voting, for example.)
“At this point, we should expect this as a norm for Musk, and not an outlier of his activity,” she said.
Musk has frequently replied to or reposted content from three conservative pundits formerly paid by Tenet: Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson. From the public launch of Tenet Media in November 2023 until the release of the indictment, Musk interacted with Pool’s account at least 32 times, Rubin’s at least 11 times and Johnson’s at least nine times, according to searches of X’s archives. He did so on a wide array of subjects including immigration, presidential politics and homelessness.
Tech platforms are split on what to do with Tenet’s back catalog of videos. YouTube and Meta removed Tenet’s accounts, citing their policies against disinformation, while X and right-wing video platform Rumble have left up Tenet’s content.
The Senate Intelligence Committee is scheduled to tackle the subject of foreign threats to elections in a hearing Wednesday afternoon. Among the scheduled witnesses are executives from Google’s parent company, Alphabet; Facebook’s parent company, Meta; and Microsoft. A representative for X was not at the hearing because the company “declined to send an appropriate witness,” a representative for the committee chair, Mark Warner, D-Va., said in an emailed statement to CNBC. The hearing was set for 2:30 p.m. ET.
Given Musk’s stature, his amplification of Tenet Media’s content appears to have been unique. NBC News searched for other high-profile individuals who shared Tenet Media content and did not find other CEOs of large tech companies or celebrities who had done so to the same degree.
Musk thrives in the conservative media ecology and has helped to build it, including by allowing previously suspended accounts back onto X since he bought the app two years ago, said Martin Riedl, an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
“Musk’s stature in the online ecology of the far right is unique,” he said in an email.
In August, Musk replied “!!” to a Tenet post on X criticizing diversity training at NASA. That post by Tenet received 1.9 million views, far more than Tenet’s typical posts, although it’s impossible to determine how much Musk helped. In April, Musk replied with the monocle emoji to a Tenet video about “eco-terrorism.”
Musk has used his influence to spotlight some of Tenet’s individual creators, too. In mid-August, Musk had a back-and-forth with then-Tenet Media pundit Lauren Southern, which began with her saying most people misunderstand Musk and Trump.
“Anyone who thinks the media is real is an idiot,” Musk responded, getting more than 647,000 views.
“Much work to do in reversing this brain rot,” Southern wrote back.
“Much work indeed. And it’s far worse in Europe. People really believe the media there!” Musk replied.
Southern and other commentators formerly employed by Tenet Media have said that they did nothing wrong. The indictment says they were unaware they were being paid by Russian sources and that they had been deceived about the sources.
David Ingram
David Ingram is a tech reporter for NBC News.
^ Lets go the media needs to put more of these stories put ASAP!
I need a 60 minutes segment on this piece a shyt Elon Musk being an agent!
This guy is a Russian Asset
I need a 60 minutes segment on this piece a shyt Elon Musk being an agent!
This guy is a Russian Asset
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