X Plans to Go to War against Election Disinformation

(VitalNews.org) – The social media platform Twitter, which is now rebranded by Elon Musk as X, is looking to fill some new positions at the company responsible for handling misinformation on the platform during the 2024 election season.

The story took off after author Kristen Ruby quote-tweeted an announcement by Aaron Rodericks, whose bio identifies him as working in “Threat Disruption” for Twitter, focused on “Disinfo/elections/Information Operations.” Rodericks put out an open call for a senior specialist in “Information Operations,” a “Civic Integrity/Elections Team Leader,” and an “Information Integrity” software engineer, providing a link for each position describing the requirements.

Naturally, this decision raises some eyebrows among those under the impression that Musk is trying to create a platform centered around freedom of speech. Many have questions about how these misinformation combaters are going to handle this task, and whether or not they will return to censoring users for expressing beliefs or doubts about election integrity.

When Musk released the Twitter Files earlier this year, one of the revelations was confirmation that the social media company cooperated with federal agencies to bury the New York Post’s story on the Hunter Biden laptop during the election under the guise of combatting Russian disinformation. The White House called the revelation “a distraction.”

The files also proved that during the pandemic, especially in 2020 and 2021, social media platforms mass-censored users for even questioning the use of masks to stop the virus or the effectiveness of vaccines, let alone for disagreeing with the official narrative.

Those who fill the new jobs for Twitter will be responsible for dealing with disinformation as the 2024 election approaches by monitoring discourse on the platform as well as verifying information shared. The job description includes a note at the end that the “role involves potential exposure to sensitive, graphic content, including but not limited to vulgar language, violent threats, pornography, and other graphic images.”