Democratic lawmakers ask Musk for info on possible Chinese manipulation of Twitter
Summary
In a letter to Musk on Tuesday, Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Jackie Speier, D-Calif., cited a report from The Washington Post that found many Chinese-language accounts began spamming Twitter with links to escort services and other offerings in the wake of protests over Chinas restrictive Covid control measures. "To ensure that the United States is prepared to counter, thwart, and deter foreign influence threats online, it is critical that we understand the extent of the PRCs potential manipulation of Twitter and identify how recent changes at Twitter are affecting the threat of CCP foreign influence operations on social media," the lawmakers wrote. The letter comes after Musk — who is also CEO of SpaceX, a U.S. defense contractor, and Tesla , a multi-national electric vehicle company with a vital factory in Shanghai — began releasing internal communications from Twitter this past week to politically conservative writers including Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss. Musk released what he said is the first set of "Twitter Files" to support claims that the companys prior management handled content moderation in a way that was biased against conservatives. Research conducted before Musk acquired it found that Twitters content moderation approach was not politically biased, but the company did suspend tweets or accounts sharing some widely agreed upon misinformation.