April 19, 2024

DANGEROUS: Musk lifts restrictions on Putin’s Twitter account

DANGEROUS: Musk lifts restrictions on Putin's Twitter account

In the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine one year ago, Twitter announced it would “not amplify or recommend government accounts belonging to states that limit access to free information and are engaged in armed interstate conflict.”

The policy was instantly applied to any Kremlin-linked Russian government accounts and remained in place until recently, but a new review of the app reveals the policy has now been lifted.

Vladimir Putin’s presidential Twitter account has been restored. Not only that, the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and its UK Embassy have also been given full access to Twitter once again despite the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Twitter’s search results, timeline, and recommendation tools are showing them as users to follow, so expect that to show up in your “For You” tab, which they should rename.

“For You and You Will Like It,” maybe? What could possibly go wrong with flooding Twitter with even more Russian propaganda and disinformation, except only everything?

Let’s ask Elon Musk, who has been deliberately dismantling Twitter over the last six months as a reliable source of news and information in his continued attack on the free press.

Musk has already essentially removed all meaning from the Verification process. Those of us with Legacy Verified accounts now get a “this might be a paid account but it might not be” disclaimer whenever anyone checks our blue checks.

Elon is also muddying the once-trustworthy news waters by adding arbitrary labels to any account he perceives as “State-Allied Media.”

NPR has steadfastly refused to tweet now that its account has been slapped with the tag, which (not at all) strangely hasn’t been applied to the Fox News Twitter account.

By Sunday, Twitter had changed NPR’s label from “State-Allied” to “Government Funded Media,” which is still not completely true.

This is the same keyboard warrior who “challenged” Putin on Twitter in March 2022 to “single combat,” and no, I also don’t know what that means.

“I hereby challenge Владимир Путин to single combat,” the tweet says. The Russian words in the tweet translate directly to “Vladimir Putin,” according to the Google’s Translate.

The “stakes” are “Ukraine,” so it’s fine to watch out-of-touch megalomaniacs have a flame war on Twitter while schools were being bombed.

Again, what could possibly go wrong except literally the end of any trust in the free press, which is only one of many potentially terrible outcomes?

*THIS IS AN OPINION COLUMN THAT SOLELY REPRESENTS THE OPINIONS OF TARA DUBLIN. HOORAY FOR THE FREE PRESS!*

Other hot takes by Tara Dublin can be found on TikTok and Twitter @taradublinrocks.

Tara Dublin

Tara Dublin is a woefully unrepresented writer who thinks more people would read her cool rock & roll love story inspired by Dave Grohl than any ghostwritten GOP crapbook, agents & publishers. Follow Tara on Twitter @taradublinrocks