Outside America, Musk’s X is a foreign influence threat
We have consistently argued for TikTok to be banned in the U.S. as it could be a powerful tool for the Chinese government to interfere with American political discourse. For U.S. allies, a similar argument now applies to X.
Commentators in Canada and the United Kingdom have already floated the idea of banning X. Meanwhile, in France, prosecutors have announced they’ve opened an investigation into X over alleged algorithmic bias. The investigation was launched after the prosecutor’s office received complaints about X’s interference in French democratic debate.
X isn’t TikTok, but in many ways it’s actually worse. X actively promotes CEO Elon Musk’s hard-right, fascist ideology, while interference on TikTok is mostly a theoretical risk. TikTok might be up to something and might improperly use its influence one day. Musk’s interference on X, on the other hand, is as subtle as a brick to the head.
X has devolved into a cesspool of misinformation that vomits rivers of fascist propaganda onto the internet.
Evidence of Musk’s interference in other countries’ politics is not hard to find. [Continue reading…]