Civil rights lawyers and Democrats are sounding alarms about Mr. Musk’s claims about voting. The Biden campaign called his posts “profoundly irresponsible.”

In the spring of 2020, when President Donald J. Trump wrote messages on Twitter warning that increased reliance on mail-in ballots would lead to a “rigged election,” the platform ran a corrective, debunking his claims.

“Get the facts about mail-in voting,” a content label read. “Experts say mail-in ballots are very rarely linked to voter fraud,” the hyperlinked article declared.

This month, Elon Musk, who has since bought Twitter and rebranded it X, echoed several of Mr. Trump’s claims about the American voting system, putting forth distorted and false notions that American elections were wide open for fraud and illegal voting by noncitizens.

This time, there were no fact checks. And the X algorithm — under Mr. Musk’s direct control — helped the posts reach large audiences, in some cases drawing many millions of views.

Since taking control of the site, Mr. Musk has dismantled the platform’s system for flagging false election content, arguing it amounted to election interference.

Archive

    • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
      721·
      10 months ago

      Democracy already lost to capitalism. Authoritarianism is the natural progression of allowing a minority to control most of humanity’s wealth/power/resources — a return to the mean that applied for 99% of recorded history.

      • Harbinger01173430@lemmy.world
        13·
        10 months ago

        Isn’t authoritarianism the default type of government humans gravitate towards because there’s always some dumbass who wants to be king or emperor and they somehow pull it off?

        • ME5SENGER_24@lemmy.world
          7·
          10 months ago

          Because the rich promise to lift a specific subset of people out of the muck, in exchange for that specific subset allowing them to rule and to keep the rest of the population far from their golden thrones. Capitalism has always been the fault, greed has always been the motivating factor.

          People need to stop thinking that their life is any more important than their neighbor’s and start thinking that we’re all in it together and we should all enjoy the time we’ve got as best as we all possibly can. From king to peasant, from president to street rat we are all the same and should all be treated equally. How we can have billionaires and millionaires when someone will die homeless from hypothermia is beyond me. It’s not an individual responsibility either, that should be the goal of a good government; that all its citizens have in abundance and it should also be the goal of world leadership that nations work collectively to make sure that every citizen of every nation has in abundance.

          Instead we have dragons laying atop golden mountains

          • Harbinger01173430@lemmy.world
            2·
            10 months ago

            I read a while ago that capitalism is cancer but industrialization isn’t. I think I see what you mean. Being driven by profit caused our well being to diminish to critical levels

        • Sodis@feddit.de
          10·
          10 months ago

          There is no full democracy, that can’t be attacked by fascists, if they get elected. There are enough examples for this in the world. Democracy needs the support of the citizens or it will not work. It is not a self-sufficient system.

            • Sodis@feddit.de
              2·
              10 months ago

              Then no true democracy according to your definition exists.
              I do not have a better suggestion.

                • Sodis@feddit.de
                  1·
                  10 months ago

                  Did you follow the last elections in the Netherlands? A right populist party with only 1 member just won it and one of his policies is to change, that the law is equal for everyone.
                  All of these countries have right-wing populist movements. In Sweden it’s the Sweden Democrats, who are second in polls. Finland also just elected a right-wing government including the right populist party Finns. Every time right-wing governments come into power, that include far right parties, they slowly chip away at the base of democracy: electing judges, that share their views, weakening the balance of power and so on.
                  I mean, Germany tried to learn from the time of national socialism to strengthen it against the takeover of anti-democratic parties. Yet, German democracy is still vulnerable if the AfD comes into power.

            • psud@lemmy.world
              0·
              10 months ago

              The word is spelt “sophisticated”

              And yes, a democracy with a sufficiently educated populous is immune to authoritarianism

              That’s probably why the American right attacks education

        • Eldritch@lemmy.worldEnglish
          6·
          10 months ago

          The law will never apply equally, or be just. So long as we still pursue capitalism. It’s a deeply flawed system that has long outlived it’s usefulness. Since the advent of our industrialization it’s become an increasing threat to humanity.

            • Eldritch@lemmy.worldEnglish
              4·
              10 months ago

              There’s a whole host of things even from the 19th century to try that we haven’t thoroughly looked at yet.

              Basically broad strokes. Dilute power. Not just in government but society as well. All power corrupts. Put workers and managers on an equal footing. No ownership class. Push to make society value society and not capital. A person, their life, their health, and their shelter should never be treated as capital. And as a society we should punish anyone who tries.