In a fiery exchange, Elon Musk, the owner of X, took aim at Mark Zuckerberg and accused Facebook of engaging in manipulative tactics to control public opinion. Musk’s criticism came in response to an exposé by Sky News Australia, which claimed that Facebook, now known as Meta, had been financially supporting a fact-checking operation that allegedly silenced political content ahead of an important referendum in Australia.
Musk expressed his concern over Facebook’s manipulation of public opinion on a global scale, highlighting that the company refuses to make its algorithm open-source. The report revealed that the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, funded by Meta, had consistently fact-checked posts that expressed opposing views on the establishment of a “Voice to Parliament,” representing indigenous communities in Australia. The investigation found evidence of bias within the institute’s fact-checking team, with the head of its “Fact Lab,” Russell Skelton, displaying partisan behavior on social media despite their supposed neutral role as an independent fact-checker. Additionally, Renee Davidson, an RMIT staff member, was accused of using her position to censor opinions she personally disagreed with.
Sky News Australia, owned by News Corp., claims that Meta representatives have yet to respond to Musk’s remarks. This isn’t the first instance of Facebook’s fact-checkers suppressing dissenting views. The platform blocked The Post for publishing an op-ed suggesting that COVID-19 may have originated from a Chinese lab leak, contrary to the widely accepted theory of a wet market origin. They also censored The Post’s exclusive report on Hunter Biden’s laptop prior to the presidential election. Although Zuckerberg eventually acknowledged the mistake, attributing it to a vague FBI warning about potential “Russian propaganda,” the incident raised concerns about Facebook’s control over information.
Musk, who acquired X last year for $44 billion, has recently intensified his rivalry with Zuckerberg through the launch of Threads, a competing text-based app. As tensions flare, the billionaire duo has even joked about a potential “cage match” face-off, with Zuckerberg suggesting it’s time to move on because Musk isn’t serious about the fight. Meta’s executives have positioned Threads as a more regulated alternative to X, which has been criticized by advertisers for its lenient content moderation practices. Musk has raised concerns about Threads’ privacy policies, and in May, he questioned the trustworthiness of Meta-owned WhatsApp while promoting Twitter’s plan to introduce encrypted messaging.
Although Musk made X’s algorithm publicly available last April, fulfilling a pledge he made after acquiring the company, he has faced backlash for other actions deemed as attempts to restrict transparency, such as revoking free API access. Additionally, this week, Musk announced that news articles would no longer display their headlines or text when shared on X, a move that followed accusations of X throttling news outlets by implementing a five-second delay on article clicks, which was later removed.
Denial of responsibility! VigourTimes is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.
