X in More Chaos Since Elon Musk Takeover as Flood of Fake News Turns Off Advertisers

Since Elon Musk took over Twitter and renamed it X, advertisers have slowly been leaving the company as constant policy changes and an increase in fake news have flooded the platform.

Since he bought Twitter (now X) for $44 billion last year, Musk has instituted some very controversial moves, such as reinstating former US President Donald Trump and gutting Trust and Safety Teams. He also placed a paywall for the "Blue Checkmark" that made it easy to mask as legitimate sources and spread fake news.

As Al Jazeera noted, the loss of the trust and safety teams was particularly a big hit to the platform's credibility as X has now been flooded with fake news regarding the Hamas attacks on Israel. The lack of fact-checking on the site has many experts concerned.

X stopped displaying headlines for articles shared on the platform and this allowed more online disinformation on the Israel-Hamas war to surface. Since last week, the platform has only shown the lead image associated with the article and the website it leads to.

To make things more confusing for readers, X has stopped labeling its ads. This makes it difficult to tell them apart from regular posts, thus making it harder for people to keep up with the news. This resulted in advertisers getting alienated from the platform and hurting revenues.

"[The] erosion of trust, both from users and advertisers, coupled with the heightened risk of disinformation and misinformation, should cause worry for X's future prospects," Zachary Weiner, CEO of communications agency Emerging Insider told Al Jazeera. "The platform's business model, historically reliant on ad revenues and active user engagement, is under threat."

EU Sent Elon Musk Warnings Regarding the Spread of Fake News on X

The rise in the number of fake news on X has concerned even the EU as alleged disinformation about the Hamas attack on Israel has been increasing on the site. The EU warned that fake news and "repurposed old images" have been spreading throughout X.

The warning letter came less than two months after the EU passed sweeping new laws regulating content on social media under the Digital Services Act. Should Musk not comply and fake news and misinformation continue to spread at X, he could face a fine of 6% of his revenues from the company. The EU could also blackout X entirely, according to The Guardian.

Elon Musk Himself Spread Fake News Regarding Israel-Hamas War But Deleted That Tweet

Musk himself has shown that he also falls for fake news and was recently forced to delete a tweet on X regarding some misinformation he helped spread.

According to the New York Post, Musk wrote in a deleted post, "For following the war in real-time, @WarMonitors & @sentdefender are good." He added, "It is also worth following direct sources on the ground. Please add interesting options in replies below." However, the billionaire soon deleted that very tweet because, as it turned out, he was endorsing accounts that have a history of being "antisemitic" and "biased."

Musk was bashed for the post, with X users pointing out that "@WarMonitors is a rancid hate account that puts the word 'Israel' in quotes and refers to Hamas terrorists as 'resistance' fighters." It is noted that the billionaire had been feuding with Jewish advocacy groups such as the Anti-Defamation League for allowing hate speech to proliferate on the site once known as Twitter.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: EU warns Elon Musk of 'penalties' for disinformation circulating on X amid Israel-Hamas war - ABC7 News Bay Area