Misinformation is really quite common in our society. It flourishes specifically due to social media. Social media not only allows but even sometimes encourages the spread of misinformation. On social media sites misinformation and false claims are quite rampant. Due to how prevalent misinformation is It’s important to have guard rails and reasonable restrictions in place. However in researching those guard rails and restrictions I’ve found that some of them are extremely lax or even nonexistent. The two social media sites that I investigated were X (formerly twitter) run by Elon Musk and Instagram run by Mark Zuckerberg.
X was bought by Elon Musk in October of 2022. Elon Musk was a fervent Trump supporter and almost immediately rolled back many restrictions that Trump had been against. Elon Musk severely changed its algorithms and restrictions under the guise of free speech. However many of the things he changed may have had some serious consequences.
For instance when X was Twitter it actively removed any misinformation concerning COVID 19 vaccines and health pertaining to the pandemic, but when Elon Musk took over he eliminated that. Twitter also banned any claims about rigged elections or uncertified results. Elon Musk eliminated that and chose to rely exclusively on community notes. Twitter had a tool for users if they fact checked something and found it misleading they could flag it and it would be checked and possibly removed. Elon Musk scrapped that tool from the site entirely. X went through a number of large and influential changes each one making the site easier and easier to knowingly or unknowingly spread and share misinformation until it became a hub for false and toxic claims. A study done by the BBC concluded that It is the social media site with the most fake news globally.
Instagram has also changed some things. One thing that Instagram changed was its independent third party fact checkers. Before 2025 Instagram had independent third parties that would fact check all dangerous content and would remove or place warnings and or context within any posts with misinformation. That program had been in place for nearly a decade and had some very positive results. However that program was cancelled and switched to a slightly less reliable program of community notes similar to X’s program that was put in place when Elon Musk purchased it.
The danger of misinformation cannot be overstated. Misinformation around elections and politics can lead people to not participate in politics at all and not use their voice. Even more dangerously misinformation around health concerns like COVID 19 or vaccines can lead to death.
Elon Musk’s purchase of X might be the most disastrous thing to happen to social media and the spread of misinformation. When he bought X he almost immediately rolled back restrictions in a major way. He replaced those restrictions with poor copies that were not nearly as effective or just didn’t replace them at all. It seems that Instagram followed suit by replacing its fact checking tool with community notes which is almost exactly what Elon Musk did.
Now the question becomes why. Why were all these guardrails and restrictions that seemed necessary rolled back and eliminated? Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg both have publicly claimed it’s about the first amendment and America’s right to free speech. However another theory circulating is that it’s about a good working relationship with Donald Trump.
President Trump shares misinformation often. He publicly opposed a number of guardrails and restrictions that were put up on many social media sites most notably X. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg both were seen celebrating at Trump’s inauguration and have dined at Trump’s resort Mar-a-Lago. Elon Musk was even part of Trump’s cabinet and the leader of DOGE, a short lived government program that tackled wasteful spending. There is a theory that Musk and Zuckerberg rolled back restrictions as a favor to Trump so that he as president would grant them favors that only the president could provide.
It has become clear that there need to be reasonable restrictions about sharing misinformation on social media sites. It can’t just be left up to the owners and presidents of those sites to put up guard rails. There have to be more laws and those laws need to be more well defined. If we don’t put laws like that in place this could get worse. Those laws are necessary for stopping the spread of misinformation. The articles and sources below provide more information on this topic.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66926080
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/27/tech/x-twitter-misinformation-reporting-feature-scrapped
https://www.internetmatters.org/hub/news-blogs/tackling-misinformation-on-instagram/