More stories

  • in

    Voices: Independent readers say ‘X is the disinformation company’ – and call for Elon Musk boycott

    Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorIndependent readers have slammed social media companies, accusing them of allowing disinformation to run rampant as far-right riots spread across the country.When we asked for views, our community was particularly concerned about the role of Twitter/X owner Elon Musk, whose comments and actions have been labelled dangerous. Some even suggested boycotting his platform.More broadly, comments from our readers reflected a widespread frustration with social media’s role in amplifying disinformation, accusing platforms of prioritising profit over social responsibility. Many pointed out that the anonymity afforded to users enables harmful behaviour, while algorithms were seen as exacerbating issues by prioritising sensationalist content. And some readers felt governments should intervene more aggressively, enforcing stricter regulations to curb the spread of misinformation. The overarching sentiment was that while social media’s negative impact on society is clear, the solutions are complex, with no easy fix in sight.Here’s what you had to say:‘Rabid left’The rabid left often has wet dreams about silencing free speech so they can have a monopoly over the narrative. It is no different in communist China. It was the same in the USSR. “We are here to protect you” – this is the message they want to spread while they black access to your only means of open and free informationShabz‘Braverman, Badenoch and Farage have all contributed significantly’I have the sense that there are so many bad people around politics at the moment. The previous administration descended to an unprecedented level of deceit, corruption and hypocrisy. No sooner do we boot them out, than we have this uprising of racist bullies and hooligans, burning and looting and terrorising innocent people. And they have support in high places: Braverman, Badenoch and Farage have all contributed significantly to validating these crimes.Longmemory23‘The business of making money’Social media platforms aren’t in the business of social discourse or the exchange of ideas, they’re in the business of making money, however they can, and they do.I’m reminded of a quote; “If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner”. H. L. MenckenTomSnoutThe issues go deeper than social mediaThere are three fundamental problems here.The first is the willingness of people with power and influence to exploit or encourage the worst instincts of their supporters. This is what populists have always done and it’s been going on since at least Roman times.The second is the willingness of some people to believe practically anything if it’s spread by their peers or supported by their leaders, and fits in with their prejudices about the world.The third is the rising tide of civil unrest around the world, which seems to be driven by rising living costs, a sense of loss of control, inequality and reduced economic opportunities. Some of this is fundamentally driven by climate change, and that will become increasingly the case.These are big problems. Social media companies can certainly do better when it comes to removing and challenging untrue claims, but the issues are much more difficult to fix than that.RichT‘Legislate platforms as publishers’The platforms are publishers. Legislate them as such. Their negative impact on society would diminish overnight and hopefully many would go out of business. Amongst the replacements will be online platforms that prevent anonymity, further diminishing their horrible social effects. The ones that continue to allow anonymity will diminish in relevance as all their content will be suspect.What about privacy you say? You can have all the privacy you want but when you want to spam the planet with trash you have to sign your name.ChamatoNo politics on social media”Separating the truth from the lies on social media is harder than ever”Well, that says everything about why public conversations and opinions that one person wants to share with multiple unknown people should be banned on social media. That means that no political conversation should take place on social media until clear rules have been defined. All kinds of binding agreements have already been made in the political world, even financing an election. If that is possible, sharing messages and opinions on social media should certainly be possible. The private owners of social media should be prohibited from doing politics and messages to reach unknown people.We all see today that freedom of speech without responsibility is destroying society. What must happen first and foremost is to make someone bear full responsibility for the damage he causes with his speech. Justice must adapt more quickly to a society where, now not only can multiple unknown people be reached via written text, but they can also communicate via oral and visual media.demeyereMusk’s ‘civil war’Less concerning than the ‘free speech’ Musk champions on Twitter(X), are Musk’s own words. He is bandying terms like ‘civil war’ about the UK, when he clearly knows nothing of society on this side of the pond. The UK is not the USA. The numbers of numbskulls who think violence is the answer to everything is a much smaller proportion of the population here. If ever the military did become involved, it would swiftly ‘wipe the floor’ with these beer-bellied blowhards from ‘Spoons.jingscrivvens‘Disinformation is profit’Disinformation is profit. It multiplies like petrol-fuelled wildfires, and the clickbait offers substantial click-and-view revenue to the platform and boosts its share price. X in particular is revenue-starved. So they and their shareholders have little interest in stopping it until it dies down and/or people get killed. Then they do the misinformation sweep-up along with grandiose gestures of piety until the next time.That is not going to change unless they start risking fines and/or jail time for their turn in carrying contentsthat starts riots.’What about free speech then’ will rightly argue the free speech evangelists. Yes, they have a major point. This is where I believe compulsory moderation with the moderators drawn from a wide cross-section of society is an answer here.OffshoreInvestor‘Defenceless’No, they don’t do anything, but cosmetic measures. Misinformation means views = income. Real action against misinformation only costs money. So for the proprietors, it is a no-brainer. EU-wide measures with high penalties will work. The EU has enough clout to tackle companies like that. For the UK? You are practically defenceless. RebootedyetagainHans2‘Protecting the bottom line’Social media platform owners have no interest in the harm that their platforms can unleash. They can do much more, but choose to do the minimum, protecting their bottom line. Their power and influence need to be curbed. Anonomity should be removed for a start and algorithms that push certain types of content should be blocked. That is anathema to freedom of speech absolutists. I think freedom of speech is a precious commodity and needs to be both protected and used with great thought. Having the freedom to say something does mean you should or have to say something.Speculator‘Whose footsteps will Musk follow?’Musk’s complete disregard for morality, or lives for that matter, reminds me of when William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer ‘created’ a war between America and Spain over Cuba so that they could report on it. Pulitzer was so ashamed of his actions he set up the Pulitzer Prize for good and honest journalism, Hearst not so much; I wonder whose footsteps Musk will follow?TomSnoutSocial media is public, not privateI sat down once, to do the math.For Facebook to review everything (by a human) before posting would likely increase their workforce from 86,000 to about 50,000,000 (making FB to be the world’s largest company for about an hour, until it filed for bankruptcy). The idea of human reviewing is a practical absurdity.All you need to do is STOP TRUSTING TOTAL STRANGERS for no reason. Go to a news source for news, go to a doctor for medical advice and above all – take care of your children instead of letting them view whatever they like online and giving them a phone for unrestricted use. You may have to actually gain a tiny amount of expertise in the technology you use.There is NO practical way for social media to police social media and the word ‘POLICE’ should give you a clue what might be appropriate. POLICE.The only practical change I can see happening and helping is recognition that many online places are PUBLIC PLACES. Most civilians think they are in private online, when the truth is they are really in a public place. So legal recognition of that and legislation that places specific regulations in place to dictate action and require police to enforce those laws.Expecting law enforcement by private citizens is just saying that those, whose responsibility it is, aren’t up to the job.- signed a veteran information security software engineer.1Eloise‘Governments should intervene’They definitely aren’t and why should they? They are profiting from misinformation. I, however, don’t believe it should be up to these companies alone to ‘fix’ the nature of the content posted on their platforms. Governments should intervene and enforce similar laws on these companies to the laws that mainstream media must follow in relation to having to bear responsibility for what is published on their platforms.Anonymity gives people carte blanche when posting online material and the content on Twitter (much of it created by bots, I believe) is outrageous: full of hatred, racism, sexism, and misogyny. While the events over the past few days may respond to a number of contextual factors (including various governments’ anti-immigration rhetoric and increasing economic inequalities in the UK), I think it’s time restrictions are imposed on these companies that force them to correct algorithms so that these are based on facts and not on content created for sensationalist reading.Words have consequences so why should all this toxic content be allowed online? In my opinion, the very dangerous nature of social media is becoming more and more apparent every day and morally, society is stepping backwards. Now let’s fast forward to an increasingly AI-based world… scary!Maider‘Too late’Too late I’m afraid. People are well and truly hooked on it. How often do we pass people who are all holding their phones? Drivers stopped at a red light, so afraid they’ll miss something on social media that they don’t see the lights change? The tech companies won’t do anything that costs them money despite billions in profits – and while people remain anonymous, they’ll continue to spread disinformation. Makes one wonder what society has become.DIRKCUTLASS‘X is now THE disinformation company’Twitter? X is now THE disinformation company, with Musk using his own platform for spreading it, in person even.European99After Musk’s latest comments deliberately trying to start a civil war in this country, I hope people will start to boycott his website and his cars. It is the only language people like him understand.Erbium‘Glad I left’No they’re not doing enough! ‘X’ seems to be igniting racism! So glad I left Twitter a year or so ago.Gingerpunk‘Make it easier to sue’I’d hate for politicians to be making calls on what is acceptable speech. Isn’t that the Putin and Xi model?A middle approach would be to make it easier to sue media companies, journalists, and social media users, for any harm or defamation that ensues. As happened with Rudy Giuliani and Fox regarding their lies regarding election workers in Georgia.WordeeSome of the comments have been edited for this article. You can read the full discussion in the comments section of the original article.All you have to do is sign up, submit your question and register your details – then you can then take part in the discussion. You can also sign up by clicking ‘log in’ on the top right-hand corner of the screen.Make sure you adhere to our community guidelines, which can be found here. For a full guide on how to comment click here. More

  • in

    Elon Musk’s estranged relationship with his transgender daughter exposes a dark trend of familial divide in the age of anti-trans politics

    Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorThis week, the world’s richest person launched an unseemly public attack on his estranged transgender daughter.In an interview released on Monday, Elon Musk – electric car entrepreneur, US government rocket contractor, and outright owner of the social media service X (formerly Twitter) – claimed that his daughter Vivian Wilson’s transition was the trigger for his recent right-wing turn.”Essentially… my son is dead,” said Musk. “Killed by the woke mind virus. So I vowed to destroy the woke mind virus after that. And we’re making some progress.”Wilson soon fired back on the rival social network Threads and in an interview with NBC News, saying that Musk was “lying blatantly” about her childhood and of bullying her for expressing femininity. (The Independent has contacted Musk for comment, via his companies.)For many trans people, these events were sad but not surprising. That is because all too many have witnessed their family members’ politics becoming more extreme and more anti-trans since they came out.Here are the stories of three trans and non-binary people who spoke to The Independent about their experiences. Their identities and certain other details have been blurred, and their answers have been edited for length and clarity.In most cases, their family members’ political shift didn’t come from nowhere; some had a prior interest in anti-trans politics. But all our interviewees said that things had got worse since their transition began.Elon Musk arrives for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on July 24, 2024 More

  • in

    Elon Musk’s transgender daughter radically influenced his shift to the right. A lot of trans people have family members like him

    Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorThis week, the world’s richest person launched an unseemly public attack on his estranged transgender daughter.In an interview released on Monday, Elon Musk – electric car entrepreneur, US government rocket contractor, and outright owner of the social media service X (formerly Twitter) – claimed that his daughter Vivian Wilson’s transition was the trigger for his recent right-wing turn.”Essentially… my son is dead,” said Musk. “Killed by the woke mind virus. So I vowed to destroy the woke mind virus after that. And we’re making some progress.”Wilson soon fired back on the rival social network Threads and in an interview with NBC News, saying that Musk was “lying blatantly” about her childhood and of bullying her for expressing femininity. (The Independent has contacted Musk for comment, via his companies.)For many trans people, these events were sad but not surprising. That is because all too many have witnessed their family members’ politics becoming more extreme and more anti-trans since they came out.Here are the stories of three trans and non-binary people who spoke to The Independent about their experiences. Their identities and certain other details have been blurred, and their answers have been edited for length and clarity.In most cases, their family members’ political shift didn’t come from nowhere; some had a prior interest in anti-trans politics. But all our interviewees said that things had got worse since their transition began.Elon Musk arrives for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on July 24, 2024 More

  • in

    Conservatives X account deleted after landslide loss to Labour

    Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorThe Conservative Party’s official account on X, formerly Twitter, has been deleted.The removal came on Monday, a few days after the Tories suffered a landslide defeat to Labour in the general election.Visitors to the page only saw an error message indicating that the account was no longer live. “Something went wrong,” read one of the messages.Conservative sources suggested that the deletion was an error on X’s behalf, and that it was working to restore the account.The party had used that account heavily during the campaign. Materials posted on the page included attack ads against Labour as well as policy announcements.The accounts of senior Conservative figures, including outgoing leader Rishi Sunak, are still live on the site. The former prime minister’s account still links to the official @Conservatives account.The party also operates an account with the handle CCHQ press, which says that it posts “News, updates and analysis from the official CCHQ Press Office”. That is still online though it has not been updated since 3 July, the day before the election.Enquiries to X resulted in an automated reply reading only “Busy now, please check back later”. More

  • in

    Sad dogs and fake TV broadcasts dominate political ads as parties launch last-minute election blitz

    Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorSad dogs and cats and fake TV broadcasts are among the ads being pushed to the public as the UK’s election campaign draws to an end.Ahead of the election, many had speculated that social media – including TikTok, which has grown dramatically since the last election – could have an outsized role in campaigning. In the event, the campaign appears to have focused largely on traditional media, and during the campaign the Conservatives appeared to pull their online paid-for marketing almost entirely.As election day approaches, however, the two main parties have seen a huge increase in their spending on online marketing. Both the Labour and Conservative parties have significantly increased the amount they are spending in recent days – though the increase is more dramatic for the Tories, which had spent considerably less than Labour and even Reform in late June.The Conservatives’ last-minute campaign blitz appears largely to be focused on one message: the slogan “don’t surrender your family’s future to Keir Starmer”. But those ads are presented in a variety of different ways, with pictures seemingly aimed at evoking emotional reactions in those that see them.They include pictures of sad dogs, including one that appears to be carrying an empty food bowl amid a warning about family finances. Another includes a picture of a sad cat, presumably for the same reason, though none of the ads makes any specific claims about animals.( More

  • in

    Conservatives halt digital ad campaigns after daily spend plunged

    Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inboxSign up to our free IndyTech newsletterThe Conservative Party has paused its digital advertising on major platforms, having spent tens of thousands of pounds a day in the early period of the election.The party has halted all its campaigns on Google and Meta platforms – which include YouTube, Facebook and Instagram – in a move that may suggest the party is changing its political strategy ahead of the general election on 4 July.As of 7 June, the Conservatives are not spending to promote adverts, according to the tech companies’ transparency platforms. At the end of May, spending peaked, with the party paying out £100,000 in just one day, according to Who Tracks Me, a group that monitors online political advertising.The Conservative Party has not responded to a request for comment on the advertising pause. It comes as Mr Sunak faces considerable criticism for his decision to return to the campaign trail before the end of the D-Day commemoration events in France, which were attended by other world leaders. Rishi Sunak spoke in Portsmouth for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, before facing criticism for missing some events in France. (Neil Hall/PA) More

  • in

    AI is coming to help national security – but could bring major risks, official report warns

    Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inboxSign up to our free IndyTech newsletterAI could have profound implications for national security – including posing a host of risks, a new government-commissioned report warns.Artificial intelligence is a valuable tool to help senior officials in government and intelligence make decisions, it says. But it could also lead to inaccuracies, confusion and other dangers, it warns.Senior officials must be trained to spot those problems, and there is a critical need for any AI systems to be carefully watched and continuously monitored to ensure they don’t lead to more bias and errors, it warns.Problems may arise, for instance, because some officials believe that AI is far more capable and certain than it actually is. In fact, artificial intelligence often works on probabilities – and can be wildly wrong, it warns.Choosing not use AI comes with its own risks, including missing patterns across data that could be central to keeping people safe, the report says.But the vast risks of using it also means that there could be more bias and uncertainty. “There is a critical need for careful design, continuous monitoring, and regular adjustment of AI systems to mitigate the risk of amplifying human biases and errors in intelligence assessment,” the report says.Those are the conclusions of the new report from the Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s national research organisation for AI. It was commissioned by British intelligence agencies, the Joint Intelligence Organisation (JIO) and Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ).The official report did not give any information on how much AI is currently used by intelligence agencies, or how mature that technology is. But it urged that work to counteract the potentially major dangers should begin immediately, to ensure that any future introduction of AI is done safely.The government said that it would consider the recommendations of the report and that it was already working on combating the potential dangers that the technology could bring.“We are already taking decisive action to ensure we harness AI safely and effectively, including hosting the inaugural AI Safety Summit and the recent signing of our AI Compact at the Summit for Democracy in South Korea,” said Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister.“We will carefully consider the findings of this report to inform national security decision makers to make the best use of AI in their work protecting the country.”The report was written by the Centre for Emerging Technology and Security (CETaS), which is based within the Alan Turing Institute. Officials there noted the importance of decision makers ensuring that they understand the nature of information that has been informed by artificial intelligence.“Our research has found that AI is a critical tool for the intelligence analysis and assessment community. But it also introduces new dimensions of uncertainty, which must be effectively communicated to those making high-stakes decisions based on AI-enriched insights,” said Alexander Babuta, director of The Alan Turing Institute’s Centre for Emerging Technology and Security.“As the national institute for AI, we will continue to support the UK intelligence community with independent, evidence-based research, to maximise the many opportunities that AI offers to help keep the country safe.”GCHQ, which jointly commissioned the report, said that it saw great potential in AI – but that it was important to work on safe uses of it too.“AI is not new to GCHQ or the intelligence assessment community, but the accelerating pace of change is,” said Anne Keast-Butler, director of GCHQ. “In an increasingly contested and volatile world, we need to continue to exploit AI to identify threats and emerging risks, alongside our important contribution to ensuring AI safety and security.” More

  • in

    New ‘magical thinking’ law puts everyone’s privacy at risk, warns Signal president

    For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Upcoming UK internet legislation is based on “magical thinking” that puts everyone’s privacy at risk, the head of secure messaging app Signal has warned. Meredith Whittaker, Signal’s president, […] More