Elon Musk, Twitter’s new leader, has amplified a fringe conspiracy theory about the fall of the cryptocurrency company FTX. He claimed earlier that FTX laundered money intended for Ukraine to Democratic midterm campaigns. Since, his Twitter take over Musk has cozied up to a lot of right-wing conspiracy theories.
These include tweeting a false story about the attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi and also attacked the LGBTQ movement. Musk has catered to his new group of right-wing cheerleaders and even allowed white supremacists to return to Twitter and even become verified users with his paid verification program.
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What Did Elon Musk Tweet About FTX?
Far from learning any lessons from the intense backlash he sparked for promoting a Paul Pelosi conspiracy theory, Elon Musk pushed radical new allegations this week about the fall of crypto exchange FTX, money laundering, and the Democrats. The Twitter CEO jumped on a vague and unverified theory that is being used to explain why the “red wave” failed to materialize on Election Day.
“Coverage of FTX meltdown is incomparably faster *and* better quality on Twitter than old-school media,” Musk tweeted on November 17, 2022. Immediately after his tweet, Min-Liang Tan replied under his tweet. He tweeted, “I must say I have to agree with this. Also, I do think there’s an opportunity for short form real-time journalism based on Twitter – but will need some way to help the new-form press/journos (for want of a better word) monetize.” Musk then replied, “Definitely.”
Coverage of FTX meltdown is incomparably faster *and* better quality on Twitter than old-school media
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 17, 2022
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What Is The FTX Conspiracy Theory?
After Musk’s tweet about the “red wave” failure to materialize on Election day, right-wing began digging into the life of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. He is also one of the biggest donors to the Democratic Party. Unverified claims began percolating alleging the FTX exchange laundered money for the Democrats.
Responding to a tweet linking family members and friends to the World Economic Forum, Musk replied, “a question worth asking,” suggesting the unverified claims are sufficient evidence to warrant investigation.
A question worth asking
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 14, 2022
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