Many on the political left and in the media expressed strong displeasure at the idea of Elon Musk taking control of Twitter. But one apparent change noted by many since it became official on Oct. 26 is an increase in the reality of the mandates of liberal politicians like Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren. In addition, false claims about Republicans, such as one implying racism against Virginia’s Republican governor, Glenn Youngin, have also been debunked. Beverly Hallberg, president and founder of District Media Group, told Fox News Digital that Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter is off to a rough start, as neither the right nor the left are entirely satisfied with his management. However, such misery, he said, can actually be a victory for the middle. “What we’re seeing right now is Twitter testing new features, for example charging for blue ticks, and relaunching Birdwatch, a crowd-sourced fact-checking program. It’s giving users more choices about how they want their experience to be on Twitter and free marketers that should be seen as a good thing,” Hallberg added. Conservatives have long complained that fact-checking organizations are skeptical of Republican claims, while often ignoring questionable comments from liberals and Democrats. NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham published a September 28 study of the first year of the Biden presidency. It found that “Biden was vetted 40 times, while Biden’s critics were vetted 230 times,” a six-to-one margin. MOSC TAKES OUT LIBERALS WITH EMAIL THAT URGES WORKERS TO COMMIT TO ‘EXTREMELY HARD’ JOBS: MOSC’S ‘GREECE’ Elon Musk’s Twitter profile displayed on a phone screen and the Twitter logo displayed on a screen are seen in this handout photo taken in Krakow, Poland on September 15, 2022. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images) “Elon Musk’s critics on the left hate his acquisition because it has the ability to be objective and put ‘framework’ on both sides, when they arrogantly believe that all the truth is on their side and that it is ‘bipartisanship’ to corrects a left. ,” Graham told Fox News Digital. Community Notes, officially called Birdwatch, is an initiative that adds reader-driven “context” to contested claims. Townhall.com reporter Mia Cathell on Nov. 2 commented on how things have changed since Musk took over. Perhaps the most famous example of Musk’s influence on Twitter was when the White House on November 1st tweeted: “Seniors receive largest increase in Social Security checks in 10 years through President Biden’s leadership.” That tweet was tagged with a note that explained: “Seniors will get a big Social Security benefit because of the annual cost-of-living adjustment, which is based on the rate of inflation.” After widespread derision of the claim, the White House deleted the tweet on Nov. 2, calling the original post “incomplete.” Sen. Warren tweeted Monday: “Let’s be clear: President Biden has the legal authority to cancel student debt. Republican officials must get out of the way so Americans can get this much-needed relief.” Many on the left are sounding the alarm over Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter. (FOX) POLITICAL SILENCE AS MEDIA SOUNDS ON EDITORIAL WARNING ELON MASKS AGAINST ATTACKS ON DEMOCRATS Twitter highlighted the statement, noting that “readers added context they thought people might want to know.” That included two articles from PolitiFact disputing the liberal general’s claims. One of the articles explained: “Experts disagree on whether the president can approve extensive debt relief by executive order.” Another noted that “the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked the student loan forgiveness program in October in response to an emergency motion.” Liberal podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen has over 580,000 followers on Twitter. His bio boasts “over a billion views on YouTube.” On Wednesday, this influential figure tweeted a false attack on Youngin: “Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngin (R) introduced a new elementary history curriculum that removes all references to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” Twitter added this note to Cohen’s tweet: “According to the document linked below, pages 2, 22, 23, 38 and 48 all contain reference to Martin Luther King and other African American leaders as part of the elementary history curriculum Virginia.” Indeed, on page 23 of the aforementioned Virginia Department of Education document, it states that students will be taught “the key events and changemakers of the Civil Rights Movement in America and Virginia, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges, John Lewis, Medgar Evers, Ralph Abernathy’. Graham, speaking about Cohen’s fact-checking, said Twitter’s new methodology for adding context to tweets appears to be a departure from many fact-checking sites, which often use “elastic judgment.” LIBERAL TECH JOURNALIST: ELON MUSK BLOCKED ME ‘A–HOLE’ IN EMAIL “Twitter’s notes on Brian Tyler Cohen’s quote are matter-of-fact, non-opinionated. This would be a departure from many liberal fact-checking sites like PolitiFact, which too often use elastic judgments to describe “technically correct” statements as “Mostly false,” he said. In this photo, a man looks at his Twitter account displayed on a smartphone screen on May 08, 2021 in Bristol, England. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images) Indeed, Birdwatch takes an approach to fact-checking that relies on consensus from various engaged Twitter users to decide which tweets need additional context and what that context is. This differs from most other fact-checking programs that rely on professional journalists from major media outlets. Musk said of the new user-generated tagging system: “The community notes feature is amazing. Our goal is to make Twitter the most accurate source of information on Earth, regardless of political affiliation.” A little more than a week later, he offered more insight into the purpose behind Community Notes: “As Twitter pursues its goal of elevating citizen journalism, the media elite will do anything to prevent this from happening.” . Musk concluded: “Mainstream media will continue to thrive, but increased competition from citizens will make them more accurate as their information monopoly is disrupted.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Birdwatch started before Musk, as a small program in January 2021, but is now open to any Twitter user interested in signing up. More recently, the number of Birdwatch posts by many anonymous volunteers seems to have increased. New participants must earn the ability to write their own notes by first submitting their own personal evaluations of notes that appear to be consistent with prior consent. Birdwatch participants can lose their earned perks when their peers give them poor ratings on the usefulness of their posts to others. All Discord chats between Birdwatch note sponsors are private. The Birdwatch code and related data are open source and are currently being studied by researchers. Nikolas Lanum is an associate editor at Fox News Digital.
