Elon Musk Calls Out AP Over 'Rigged' Election Allegations On Twitter: 'Back Up Your Claims…Or Retract Your Story'

In response to a recent report suggesting the continued prevalence of “false claims” related to the 2020 U.S. Presidential elections on Twitter, Elon Musk has asked for concrete evidence or retraction of the news. 

What Happened: On Saturday, Musk called out a report by the Associated Press stating that despite the tech billionaire’s reassurance that false claims would be corrected on the microblogging site, incorrect and misleading content regarding the 2020 election being “rigged” against former President Donald Trump has continued to flourish on Twitter. 

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Musk asked the news organization to either back its claims with “actual source data” or “retract” the story. 

The report in question cited “a review of posts on the platform” and an analysis conducted by Zignal Labs. It reportedly revealed 10 most extensively shared tweets allegedly propagating the narrative of a “rigged election” in the five days following Trump’s town hall. 

According to the report, despite Twitter’s provision to provide context to misleading tweets — that is, Community Notes features — none of the 10 posts, which accounted for over 43,000 retweets, was accompanied by them. 

Why It’s Important: The latest report comes when the preparation for the 2024 Presidential elections is in full swing in the U.S. 

Last year in November, it was reported that ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, Musk curbed the Twitter staff’s ability to restrain misinformation by freezing their access to content-enforcement tools. 

Twitter’s former head of safety and integrity, Yoel Roth, has also previously acknowledged that the microblogging site was grappling with an influx of hate speech and slurs following the acquisition deal. 

Musk has time and again hailed the Community Notes feature for providing additional context to tweets that are misleading or sharing fake news. 

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