Guido has long-campaigned for someone – Elon Musk, the government, anyone – to intervene and stop Robert Peston tweeting nonsense. He has a chronic problem. This morning ITV’s Political Editor yet again fired up Twitter before having his first cup of coffee. Here he is amplifying fake news to his 1.3 million followers, retweeting a claim that Downing Street had Photoshopped a picture of Rishi Sunak next to a group of school kids – as though it is inconceivable that such a photo could actually exist…
Apparently this is “quite funny“. It is also completely untrue. Here is the original image, which has been on the Downing Street Flickr account since February…
Eventually Peston realised he’d screwed up and admitted the photo wasn’t a “Photoshop boo-boo“, it was just “bad luck” and akin to a “modern Thick of It episode“. If journalists tweet without bothering to check, what does that say about the approach they take to their stories…
Since 2012 Guido has been promoting the idea of the last Friday in August being one day of positive exchanges on Twitter / X. For one day we can take a break fron culture wars and political extremists generally being unpleasant. Nobody is immune from negativity; Guido has been a repeat offender. Wouldn’t it be pleasantly calming if, for at least one day tomorrow, we all tried to be nice and civil in our tweets? We can do this – just for one day…
In recent years a lot of mental health charities got involved and helped spread the message and a bit of civility in these polarised times. Twitter / X can be a place for the exchange of information, rather than the abuse of political opponents. Friday is #PositiveTwitterDay. Let’s try for one day to make Twitter a positive experience for everyone…
To tweet your support just click this link: #PositiveTwitterDay
According to research by Westminster lobbyists Headland, one in four MPs (26%) have set up a profile on Threads, while 90% of UK MPs have their own Twitter/X handle. Despite the hype Meta’s Instagram linked Threads has gained 169 MPs.
Headland crunched the numbers and found that while there is only a marginal difference between which party had the most MPs on the new channel – with 39% (67) of the early adopters on the Conservative benches and 44% (77) Labour – Labour MPs have been the busiest. Only 12 Conservative MPs have been “active” (i.e., posted content more than once in the past week), versus 29 Labour MPs.
Headland’s Gregor Poynton tells Guido:
“It’s difficult to imagine how Westminster worked before tweeting, and while it seems as though X’s influence over the political news cycle is unlikely to change anytime soon, it is waning. The question for MPs will be whether it’s worth the time and energy to engage with both Threads and X.”
Despite Elon Musk’s exasperating at times tinkering with Twitter / X it will be hard for a rival social media platform to beat it because of the strong network effect – with 90% of politicians and 100% of political media on Twitter a rival will have to have a compelling advantage to cause a mass migration. Threads so far looks bare.
Fresh from being fired by FOX at the end of last month, Tucker Carlson has now announced that his show will be resuscitated, in some shape or form, on Twitter. The announcement video, now with over 73 million views, was posted as his website proclaimed ‘TUCKER IS BACK’. Complete with a photo of Tucker holding a gun.
Tucker added:
“At the most basic level the news you consume is a lie. A lie of the stealthiest and most insidious kind. Facts have been withheld on purpose, along with proportion and perspective. You are being manipulated… We’re just grateful to be here. Free speech is the main right you have. Without it, you have no others.”
Musk responded to Carlson’s declaration of love with the terms and conditions, pointing out fire exits and loos:
“On this platform, unlike the one-way street of broadcast, people are able to interact, critique and refute whatever is said. And, of course, anything misleading will get @CommunityNotes. I also want to be clear that we have not signed a deal of any kind whatsoever. Tucker is subject to the same rules & rewards of all content creators. Rewards means subscriptions and advertising revenue share (coming soon), which is a function of how many people subscribe and the advertising….”
It’s not surprising Musk wants to keep his distance from conspiracy-loving Carlson…
Elon Musk sat down with BBC reporters last night in a Twitter Spaces interview to clear the air over his recent decision to label the Corporation as “government-funded” and discuss the prevalence of “hate speech” – however loosely defined – on the platform. It went about as smoothly as you’d expect.
BBC tech reporter James Clayton claimed he’d seen more hate speech on the app since Musk took over, to which Musk inevitably asked for specific examples. For some reason, Clayton couldn’t quite recall any – instead claiming he’d seen “hateful content” on the new “For You” recommendation page, though he no longer uses that feature so isn’t exposed to it anymore. Right. Musk wasn’t having it:
“I say sir that you don’t know what you are talking about… because you cannot give me a single example of hateful content, not even one tweet. You claimed that hateful content is high. That is false, you just lied… that is absurd.”
Musk then went on the attack over the BBC’s coverage of the UK government’s Covid policies, to which Clayton was equally lost for words…
