Elon Musk tweets a conspiracy theory about attack on Paul Pelosi

CNN
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Elon Musk on Sunday gave credence to a fringe conspiracy idea about the violent attack on Paul Pelosi.

The new Twitter owner tweeted a website link to an post complete of baseless statements about Pelosi. The write-up was posted on a web page that purports to be a news outlet.

Musk, who has 112 million followers on the system he now owns, posted the baseless story about Pelosi in response to a tweet from Hilary Clinton at 8:15 am ET. He later deleted the tweet about 2 pm, but not right before racking up additional than 28,000 retweets and 100,000 likes.

Linking to a Los Angeles Instances tale about Pelosi’s alleged attacker, Clinton wrote, “The Republican Celebration and its mouthpieces now frequently distribute despise and deranged conspiracy theories. It is shocking, but not astonishing, that violence is the consequence. As citizens, we have to hold them accountable for their terms and the actions that stick to.”

In reaction, Musk joined to the baseless tale, and wrote, “There is a tiny possibility there might be much more to this tale than satisfies the eye.”

In 2016 the identical website falsely claimed that Clinton had died and that the man or woman on the presidential campaign trail was not Clinton but her physique double.

Musk’s post comes amid considerations about how the billionaire will run Twitter and if misinformation and dislike will be offered a larger system on the internet site.

A Twitter spokesperson did not quickly return a CNN request for remark.

Musk’s takeover — which was finalized Thursday evening — not only has the likely to make upheaval for Twitter

(TWTR) employees but also for the hundreds of hundreds of thousands of men and women all around the world who use the system daily. It could also influence the approaching US midterm elections, if Musk makes superior on his promise to restore the accounts of people who were previously banned from the system, most notably previous US President Donald Trump, and limit the company’s content material constraints.

In the initial weeks after agreeing to obtain the business in April, and just before his preliminary shift to bail on the offer, Musk consistently pressured that his aim was to bolster “free speech” on the platform and get the job done to “unlock” Twitter’s “extraordinary probable.” The Tesla CEO recommended he would rethink Twitter’s strategy to information moderation and long lasting bans, with probable impacts on civil discourse and the political landscape. He also talked about his want to rid the platform of bots, even as he afterwards manufactured the selection of bots central to his argument to abandon the offer.

CNN’s Clare Duffy contributed to this report