A new report explains how dangerous violent misinformation is being aggressively expanded by Elon Musk
…posts advancing these myths received 1,349,979 engagements and were cumulatively viewed by more than 100 million times globally in just one week. When faced with criticism that his sweeping changes have led to increased misinformation on the platform, Musk often touts his expansion of X’s crowdsourced fact-checking feature, called “Community Notes.” However, NewsGuard found that just 79 of the 250 posts advancing misinformation about the war were flagged by the platform with a Community Note. That means that a note appeared approximately 32 percent of the time on some of the platform’s most prominent and harmful misinformation posts.
This shows eXtwitter has a 70% failure rate when trying to shift accountability to “community” volunteer safety.
Meanwhile, the report concludes eXtwitter management is complicit in facilitating dangerous terrorist propaganda.
The Blue Check-Verified Misinformation Superspreaders of the Israel-Hamas War: …account was banned… reinstated after Musk acquired X. It became blue-check verified in September 2023, one month before the onset of the Israel-Hamas War. Collectively, the [terrorist group misinformation] posts from @Sprinter99800 were cumulatively viewed nearly 3 million times.
…Musk had recently spoken with Russia’s ambassador in Washington, who had warned him explicitly that any attack on Crimea would lead to nuclear conflict.
In fact, the exact opposite happened next, attacks on Crimea led to Russia running away scared. Arguably these attacks shortened the war and reduced threats to civilians.
This was easily predicted by historians, especially those who study how General Grant crushed pro-slavery forces by pushing straight past such empty threat tactics to liberate millions from oppression.
And yet, not just last year, but even to this day Musk keeps parroting the baseless Russian propaganda. This just in:
“We need to figure out peace in Ukraine, and I think we need to restore normal relations with Russia,” Musk said in a talk on his social media platform X on Monday. “World War III is a civilizational risk that we may not recover from. So we need to prioritize avoiding World War III…”
Musk’s suggestions have been derided by Ukrainian officials as non-starters. “F— off is my very diplomatic reply to you @elonmusk,” Ukrainian diplomat Andriy Melnyk responded to his proposal in October 2022.
No wonder Russia started a war in Israel, and no wonder they are paying Elon Musk to spread their propaganda on his sinking platform to keep it afloat.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Anyone expect Musk to ever get on the right side of history? He’s repeating the worst mistakes, ignorant beyond belief.
As I’ve said for a long time, engaging on the toxic anti-Semitic, mysogynist Swastika (formerly known as Twitter) platform is like offering law enforcement a shortcut to identifying potential harms. It’s akin to saying, “Hey police, here’s your guide to spotting national security threats!”
Today’s verdict proves that the defendant’s fraudulent actions crossed a line into criminality and flatly rejects his cynical attempt to use the constitutional right of free speech as a shield…
The initial question we must ask revolves around whether it constitutes entrapment for an individual to currently publish content on Swastika (formerly known as Twitter).
Instead of “tweets” people are starting to use the term “eXcrements” for hate speech exploding on “eXtwitter”
It’s akin to questioning whether someone participating in a KKK rally or, for that matter, displaying the unquestionably racist Betsy Ross flag at a Nazi march in Chicago should be held responsible for promoting domestic terrorism. The pressing issue arising from the initial query is how to handle active U.S. military personnel discovered in such a treasonous situation.
The second question is whether individuals are aware when they’ve unwittingly become conduits for Russian influence, as highlighted in this CNN article.
…Western voices that eventually became mouthpieces for Russian propaganda were almost certainly unaware of the role they were playing.
Reflect on the fact that America First was never going to openly associate itself with the KKK, even though it was the KKK that constructed and popularized the America First campaign. Does that make sense?
The KKK in 1916 adopted the racist anti-immigrant late-1800s nativist slogan “America First” and soon after began wearing the infamous white robes.Hitler used America First members (e.g. KKK) as “duped” foreign assets
The essence is that mules being entirely oblivious is the objective, and the more unaware a mule is, the more effective they become—whether for Wilson (KKK), Hitler (Nazi), or presently, Putin (X and Z), as illustrated in this Yahoo News article.
The real threat, [a former army intelligence officer] concluded, came from Russia, which was running what appeared to be a wide-ranging disinformation campaign aimed at destabilizing… democratically-elected governments…
Considering the above two inquiries, the Swastika-affiliated account @sentdefender (OSINTdefender) is recognized for disseminating perilous “poison” posts. Moreover, it has garnered attention for being actively endorsed by Elon Musk.
…”@sentdefender are good,” Musk posted on the platform formerly called Twitter…
…Emerson T. Brooking, a researcher at the Atlantic Council Digital Forensics Research Lab, posted that @sentdefender is an “absolutely poisonous account. regularly posting wrong and unverifiable things … inserting random editorialization and trying to juice its paid subscriber count.”
Pushing poison for profits sounds awful, as though Elon Musk has decided the American opioid crisis is a viable business model for him by platforming toxic content.
What happens when Elon Musk’s “poison pusher” accounts such as OSINTdefender are noticed and become worthy of investigation by U.S. military and law enforcement?
This particular Swastika (formerly known as Twitter) account has recently been revealed to be purportedly operated by an active-duty officer in the U.S. military.
The OSINT group Molfar has provided extensive identity data for the case, suggesting action.
2023 OSINTdefender brag that he served with Russians 2016 photo of Russian military exercise, posted by Simon Anderson (OSINTdefender) to his Facebook account 2016 photo posted by Simon Anderson (OSINTdefender) to his Facebook account
While the CEO of Swastika somehow manages to delay or evade personal accountability, regulatory bodies and law enforcement agencies may intensify their scrutiny of those associated with him. Elon Musk appears to be attempting a precarious blend of Bernie Madoff and John Kapoor. Yet, the scale of his “business of harm” is significantly larger and raises an increasingly pressing question of accountability for anyone associated with it.
The subsequent query might delve into whether Russian military intelligence has compensated Elon Musk for endorsing OSINTdefender and, if so, to what extent.
Even seasoned journalists have been commenting to me repeatedly that they need better source analysis and perspective in this new war to find truth. Hopefully this helps.
The Israeli government alleges it has a recording of Hamas itself identifying the Ahli Arab hospital bombers, as reported by The Guardian.
Israel’s foreign ministry has published what it claims is an intercepted call between two Hamas operatives where they discuss how the al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital has been struck by a failed rocket fired from within Gaza.
Reuters reported additional details provided by the Israeli Defense Forces.
…chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said an investigation had “confirmed that there was no IDF (Israel Defence Forces) fire from the land, sea or air that hit the hospital”. He said there was no structural damage to buildings around the Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital and no craters consistent with an air strike. Asked to explain the size of the explosion at the site, Hagari said it was consistent with unspent rocket fuel catching fire. “Most of this damage would have been done due to the propellant, not just the warhead,” he said.
Israel has categorically denied targeting hospitals, however we know they also gave orders to evacuate by October 14 (four days ago) on the premise of reducing civilian casualties by moving them out of harms way.
Al Awda Hospital was struggling to evacuate dozens of patients and staff after the military contacted it and told it to do so by Friday night, said the aid group Doctors Without Borders, known as MSF, which supports the facility. The military extended the deadline to Saturday morning, it said.
As a historian, I am reminded of the Yalta Conference 4 February 1945 when Stalin opened the conversation with Churchill by asking “why haven’t you bombed Dresden?”
The issue for Stalin was this German city had become a weapons manufacturing and military command center. We also know very clearly today that it had become an essential hub of Nazi operations for brutally targeting and killing millions of civilians.
Ten days later, the Allied commanders unleashed nearly 800 Allied planes and upwards of 4,000 tons of explosives to destroy Nazi ability to orchestrate further attacks from Dresden.
Afterwards Churchill expressed disappointment with high civilian casualties, to which Air Chief Marshal Arthur “Bomber” Harris famously wrote to the Air Ministry in response:
Actually Dresden was a mass of munitions works, an intact government centre, and a key transportation point to the East. It is now none of these things.
The Axis also tried to propagandize the destruction of Dresden. Their military was known to regularly target civilians with strafing, indiscriminate bombing and even aiming at ambulances and hospitals. The Nazis thus tried to accuse an Allied “dicker Hund” over Dresden of using same inhumane tactics, yet ultimately none of such targeting accusations were found to be true. The opposite, undermining Nazi propaganda, Churchill was very clearly displeased with the air force adopting inhumane “area bombing” tactics and pressed for improved precision to avoid civilians. Inhumane, and also different from other inhumane acts.
Tragically 25,000 German civilians were killed by British use of widespread area bombing. The operation continues to be debated to this day for many reasons, yet the Nazi occupation of a city to perpetuate and orchestrate their massive Holocaust is front and center to any discussion about nineteen Dresden hospitals destroyed in 1945.
Based on reports so far there has been no evidence that Israel targeted or even accidentally hit the hospital with bombs.
I expect further investigation to continue and reports to evolve. One intercepted call isn’t alone enough to prove fault, which is why Israel also has been providing details that can easily be verified.
Justin Bronk, the senior research fellow for airpower and military technology at RUSI in London, said that while the results were not conclusive, no crater or obvious shrapnel pattern consistent with standard [Israeli] JDAM bombs was visible in images of the aftermath. “If this is the extent of the damage then I’d say an airstrike looks less likely than a rocket failure causing an explosion and fuel fire,” he added.
And again:
Marc Garlasco, a former Pentagon chief of high value targeting during the Iraq war in 2003, told the Guardian: “The number [of casualties] is astronomically high, an absolute high range of all time if true. “The crater is not consistent with an airstrike, it is more likely to be a weapon that failed and released its payload over a wide area. “The crater and surrounding damage is also not consistent with a JDAM aerial bomb. The hole on the ground occurred from kinetic energy.”
Thousands of people had moved into the large open courtyard of the hospital, instead of evacuating the city.
Just hours before the fateful bombing, the refugee children who sought safe shelter at Ahli Hospital gathered in the courtyard of Ahli Hospital together to sing for peace (“Salaam”), in a moving moment of solidarity and joy amidst the darkness. […] We do know that Director Suhaila Tarazi evacuated South before the attack, and is presumed safe.
Then, according to the intercepted Hamas call, a rocket was fired from the cemetery adjacent to the hospital that failed on launch and instead landed directly on the hospital.
Satellite view of the cemetery in Gaza adjacent to Ahli Arab hospital (H) that Hamas says was used by terrorists to launch missiles at civilians. Source: Google Maps
Notably, three days earlier the hospital also had been struck by rockets being fired nearby.
Rockets being fired nearby on October 14 struck the hospital upper floors, injuring four staff. Source: AFEDJ
The question I don’t see being asked, yet surely on the mind of reporters, is what kind of group would position rocket launches near one of the oldest and most famous hospitals in Gaza being used to shelter children?
Gaza terrorists launching large rockets so near to a hospital, immoral acts to intentionally use civilians as shields while also targeting civilians, increasingly are being proven to be the predictable and sole cause of the Ahli Arab tragedy.
Update Oct 23:
The NYT has apologized formally to its readers for bad reporting on this incident (parroting terrorist propaganda).
The early versions of the coverage—and the prominence it received in a headline, news alert and social media channels—relied too heavily on claims by Hamas, and did not make clear that those claims could not immediately be verified. […] The report left readers with an incorrect impression about what was known and how credible the account was. […] Times editors should have taken more care with the initial presentation.
“Taken more care” implies editors did more than nothing. It reads to me more like the NYT should have taken care.
Kudos to the Guardian for showing how to do a better job of it. Should be obvious to not parrot terrorist propaganda.
A “yarn bomb” spruced up the notoriously dirty fabric BART seats in 2011. Source: Street Color
Here’s a fascinating story told in 2019 from way back in the day about an obvious Bay Area criminal conspiracy and how it was investigated.
Several people were paid a small fee to quickly slash train seats with a knife using a specific pattern, a signature if you will. The brand new seats, instead of being patched quickly and cheaply, were removed and re-upholstered, generating a huge source of overtime pay for train workers and boosting material orders from suppliers.
In January 1981, another jump in the number of vandalized seats caused BART to once again extend and increase its contract with Service Systems, this time for $75,000, or $221,170 today. (The San Francisco Examiner estimated the contract amounts to be even higher — $100,000 in 1980, and $175,000 in 1981.) The slashes were always the same, however. One slash on the back of the seat, with another slash in the front. … It was estimated that “possibly 85 percent of the more than 7,000 BART train cushions damaged since August 1979” was the work of this company, the Examiner reported at the time. All said and done, BART had paid the company $115,000 for the repairs, a total of about $339,128 in today’s money.
That “always the same” slash helped the conspiracy identify which seat damage would reward their slashers. Of course such a signature move also should have helped stop the slashing of thousands of seats; years were wasted before it was finally investigated and ended in 1981.
After an investigation by the San Francisco Chronicle revealed that, harrowingly, more than two thirds of the cameras on BART trains were fake, the Bay Area transit agency has reportedly replaced those bogus cameras with real ones.
