Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk tweets – then deletes – conspiracy theory about Pelosi attack
- Elon Musk tweeted a link to an unfounded rumour about the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband
- Musk’s purchase of Twitter has fuelled concerns it would no longer seek to limit misinformation and hate speech
New Twitter owner Elon Musk tweeted an anti-LGBT conspiracy theory about what happened the night US Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband was attacked, then hours later deleted the post.
The see-saw action by Musk, a self-declared “free speech absolutist”, cast new uncertainty on the direction the social media platform will take under his new ownership. It also underscored the huge megaphone Musk now has at his disposal.
Musk early Sunday tweeted a response to Hillary Clinton, who posted a news story about the alleged attacker’s links to the far right.
“There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye,” Musk told Clinton, attaching a link to the story, which is no longer accessible, by the conservative Santa Monica Observer.
Musk may have had second thoughts about the tweet because around noon a message appeared, “This Tweet was deleted by the Tweet author”. By then, Musk’s tweet had been liked 110,000 times, the online Semafor news site said.
The tweet was no longer visible Sunday afternoon on Musk’s feed.