Elon Musk
@elonmusk
(August 25, 2023)

Accurate

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1695135107894612093

Ashley St. Clair
@stclairashley

Big Tech's battle against "misinformation" was a self-created issue

First, they segregated people ideologically. They pushed people with ideas they disagreed with or that were "hateful" to the naughty corner of their platforms

Then their algorithms didn't want to upset or trigger you, so they spoon-fed content from those who are ideologically identical to you, and the most radical from your "side".

Add in the block button being abused with massive block lists + trigger-happy softies, and you have a completely segregated public square. (Though I still believe the block feature to be a necessary feature for those who receive legitimate harassment & threats).

They created ideological echo chambers that never existed in the real world. People were isolated to their bubbles designated by the algorithm.

When misinformation, especially that which is favorable towards a particular side, is spread through digital echo chambers, there's no avenue for correction or hearing the whole story. Instead, you get hyper-radicalized sects on both sides and few options to stop it without outright silencing the disseminators.

Big Tech knew misinformation was an issue. They knew it was radicalizing people on both sides. But they just exacerbated the issue by banning and further isolating those who they disagreed with. They needed a boogeyman that wasn't them.

Now on this platform, the algorithm is exposing content to all sides, introduced Community Notes to allow context to be added, or misinformation to be addressed democratically instead of by well-compensated fact-check overlords.

I've seen people say that X is "moving people center." Maybe it seems that way but I really think it's just moving us to where we were before we were cyborgs and chronically online. Back to a place of normalcy and dialogue.
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Obviously Big Tech then started doing the bidding of Media/govt and spreading the disinformation themselves, only allowing a certain narrative, etc. But I believe the organic issue of disinformation was largely exacerbated by echo-chambers created by Big Tech.