AI and Musk
Lies on Elon Musk’s X have instigated some of the worst racial riots in Britain’s history. Musk recently posted a comment to his hundreds of millions of followers claiming “Civil war is inevitable” in the U.K., and asserted that the British criminal justice system treats Muslims more leniently than far-right activists.
European Union commissioner Thierry Breton sent Musk an open letter reminding him of EU laws against amplifying harmful content “that promotes hatred, disorder, incitement to violence, or certain instances of disinformation” and warning that the EU “will be extremely vigilant” about protecting “EU citizens from serious harm.”
Musk’s response was a meme that said: “TAKE A BIG STEP BACK AND LITERALLY, F*CK YOUR OWN FACE!”
As I noted last week, Americans, too, are being subject to lies and bigotry on Musk’s X — and not just because Musk fired the entire staff that had been keeping such filth off the platform; Musk is also reposting and encouraging some of it.
Musk recently released an AI chatbot that falsely told tens of millions of Americans that “the ballot deadline has passed” in several swing states, including the battlegrounds of Michigan, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania, among others.
Secretaries of state in five states urged Musk to “immediately implement changes” to his chatbot, but Musk hasn’t done so.
Evidence is mounting that Russia and other foreign agents are using X to disrupt this year’s presidential race, presumably in favor of Trump. Musk refuses to take any action.
What to do about Musk? I’ve suggested that advertisers boycott X. Now Musk is suing advertisers for doing this, arguing that they’re violating antitrust laws.
It’s time to get tough with Musk. Here are some suggestions.
First, the Federal Trade Commission should demand that Musk take down lies that are likely to endanger individuals or threaten our democracy, and if he does not, sue him under Section 5 of the FTC Act.
Musk’s free-speech rights under the First Amendment don’t take precedence over the public interest. Seven weeks ago, the Supreme Court said federal agencies may pressure social media platforms to take down misinformation — a technical win for the public good (technical because the court based its ruling on the plaintiff’s lack of standing to sue).
The U.S. government — and we taxpayers — have additional power over Musk, if we’re willing to use it: The U.S. should terminate its contracts with him, starting with Musk’s SpaceX.
In 2021, the United States entered into a $1.8 billion classified contract with SpaceX that includes blasting off classified and military satellites, according to The Wall Street Journal. The funds are now an important part of SpaceX’s revenue.
Robert Reich
See more here,
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/30/elon-musk-wealth-power
Aug.21, 2024
Breaking news in the wild world of Twitter: Five secretaries of state are warning that the platform’s AI chatbot produced and spread misinformation about ballot deadlines to millions of users for more than a week.1 This comes on the heels of Musk himself spreading election disinformation late last month when he shared a deepfake video mocking Vice President Kamala Harris — without noting it was a parody.
The post seemed to clearly violate Twitter’s rules against synthetic and manipulated media.
These are clear examples of Musk setting and then ignoring the rules of the road — because he bought the road. Add your name to our petition urging Twitter to protect its users and our democracy from the toxic spread of disinformation.
No comments:
Post a Comment