X Network Has Become a Dodgy Place for the Crypto Community
Date: 2024-09-06 Author: Gabriel Deangelo Categories: BUSINESS
No longer. Giving blue checkmarks to anyone willing to pay for them has undermined the very essence of verification — and replaced authoritative sources that actually know the ropes with clickbait farms, liars, and trolls. Bots remain as prevalent as ever, and misinformation has reached epidemic proportions.
X’s “For You” feed is now filled with dubious ads, crypto scams, violent videos, and far-right voices — whether you like it or not. And if you need an example of Musk’s egocentrism, his posts regularly appear in your feed even if you don’t follow him. There was a hilarious moment when "Troll-in-Chief" X claimed the site had been DDoS'd while trying to "interview" Donald Trump on Spaces, even though it was clearly not true.
The misinformation posted on the site (and actively spread by Musk) has real-world consequences. Researchers at the Center for Countering Digital Hate recently claimed that it has made more than 50 false claims about the US election. Musk has also taken aim at other major economies, including writing that a civil war in the UK is "inevitable" after far-right protests. Those riots followed the murders of three girls in northern England, and of course the misinformation about the perpetrator appeared on X.
While Musk constantly talks about free speech, it often seems that this freedom only extends to things he agrees with. Outrage has led to the temporary deletion of left-wing journalists' accounts, which have since been quietly restored.
This week, criticism of a double standard emerged when Musk posted an AI-generated image of Kamala Harris dressed as a communist dictator. It violated X’s media manipulation policy, but no warning was issued. However, when the @YourAnonNews account posted another image of Musk and Trump kissing in Nazi uniforms, it was flagged as problematic.
Musk most often takes out his ire on critics, countries, politicians, and institutions that stand in the way of his empire or fail to advance his interests. He has criticized Kamala Harris and Democrats because Trump is more good for business. Musk called a judge who banned X in Brazil over misinformation an “evil tyrant” and compared him to Voldemort. He has also criticized the leaders of Ireland and Canada for trying to introduce regulations that could affect his platform.
There is, of course, a vocal army of crypto accounts on X that fully embrace Musk’s right-wing views and support him at every turn. But this creates the risk that newcomers and regulators may assume that the entire crypto space is aligned with this position, which is far from true. A recent survey by the Nakamoto Project found that “Bitcoin ownership is not related to political orientation,” and US investors tend to be more moderate than Musk.
With Musk currently fighting battles on many fronts, the likelihood of X collapsing is increasing. This would be disastrous for the active crypto communities that remain on the platform. Moreover, Musk’s ownership of X is a classic example of centralization, where one person can destroy everything.
At this point, it seems that the question is not if the site will collapse, but when.
