Elon Musk Reacts to Debunked Viral Video With Laughing Emoji After Being Warned About His Handling of Misinformation on X
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Days after he was given an ultimatum by the European Union to prove he was taking measures against misinformation on Twitter/X, Elon Musk responded to a fake viral video with a laughing emoji.
In a reply on his social media platform to a fabricated video depicting a harrowing moment of war coverage by CNN’s Clarissa Ward, Musk left the emoji, receiving (as of this writing) almost 1,500 likes and 100 RTs.
😂
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 11, 2023
The video got the Snopes seal of (dis)approval, with the fact-checking site declaring the video with the added audio track as a fake. CNN released a statement reiterating the authenticity of the footage, calling it “fabricated, inaccurate.”
On Tuesday, Musk was sent a letter from Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market at the European Union, giving him 24 hours to prove he was taking actions to curb misleading content on Twitter/X in accordance with the Digital Services Act or face penalties. Earlier this week, it was also revealed that 67 accounts on the platform were part of a coordinated propaganda campaign to spread misinformation related to the Israel-Hamas War. While the Twitter/X safety team posted an extended explanation on Monday outlining their plans to handle the barrage of bad content about the war that runs the gamut from unreliable to inflammatory, Musk’s response to a post falling under that umbrella was to laugh.
