In a Twitter rant, Elon Musk vows to create a news credibility rating site called ‘Pravda’ — here’s how that’s connected to Russia
Pravda is the name of a Russian newspaper that served as the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which in later decades the mouthpiece for Vladimir Lenin and then Joseph Stalin
By Leanna Garfield
Elon Musk is apparently hoping to take a page out of the Soviet playbook.
It all started when the Tesla and SpaceX CEO criticised the media in a series of tweets.
Several minutes later, Musk followed up by tweeting that he plans to start a site that would rate the credibility of news organisations. He wrote that he would consider calling the site “Pravda,” a word that means “truth” in Russian.
“Pravda” references the Russian newspaper of the same name, which launched in Moscow in the early 20th century and published daily. It still exists today, but has a much lower circulation and comes out three times per week. The paper is now run by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the country’s modern Communist party.
From 1918 to 1991, the original Pravda served as the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. When Vladimir Lenin and (later) Joseph Stalin ruled Russia, the paper was used to spread their ideas as propaganda.
During the Soviet era, Pravda was distributed nationwide. Featuring articles on Communist theory and programmes, it attempted to avoid sensational news.
There’s also the Pravda Report, another publication with a similar name that English speakers may be more familiar with. Existing solely as an online site at Pravda.ru, it covers both straightforward news (often with a Russian nationalist slant) as well as conspiracy theories. A few headlines in the past decade have included “AIDS: 21st Century’s Biggest Hoax” and “Aliens forced Americans out from the Moon.” Unlike today’s Pravda, the Pravda Report has an English-language site and is not connected to the Communist party.