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☆ 1 in 3 Republicans believes baseless Taylor Swift election conspiracy theory, poll finds
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-14 | by ( Liam Reilly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —About one-third of Republicans say they believe Taylor Swift is involved in a covert government effort to help Joe Biden win the 2024 presidential election, a poll published Wednesday from Monmouth University found. The goal of the purported plot is that the Chiefs’ victory on Sunday would present Swift with an even larger pulpit from which to endorse Biden, swinging the 2024 presidential election in his favor. “The supposed Taylor Swift PsyOp conspiracy has legs among a decent number of Trump supporters,” Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in a statement. While just under half (46%) of the 902 US adults surveyed for the poll reported they’d heard something about the conspiracy theory, one in five US adults (18%) said they believe the conspiracy, with 32% of Republicans — easily the largest of any political ideology — agreeing it is legitimate, the Monmouth poll found. Notably, however, 42% of those who said they believe the conspiracy theory to be true hadn’t heard about it before being contacted for the poll, showing either a bias against the president or a predilection for conspiracy theories.

Persons: Taylor Swift, Joe Biden, Travis Kelce, Biden, ” Patrick Murray, hadn’t, ” Murray, they’d, Republicans —, —, Swift, Vivek Ramaswamy, Jack Posobiec, Benny Johnson, Donald Trump, ”, “, Travis, ” Trump Organizations: CNN, Monmouth University, Kansas City Chiefs, Chiefs, Trump, Monmouth University Polling Institute, Republicans, Biden, Liberal Locations: Monmouth

☆ Right-wing media targets Taylor Swift with Super Bowl conspiracy theory ahead of the Super Bowl
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-30 | by ( Oliver Darcy | Andrew Kaczynski | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —Right-wing media is burning red at Taylor Swift. “Taylor Swift is an op,” Benny Johnson, a right-wing media personality who boasts millions of followers across different social media platforms, wrote on X. You’re being played.”“The Democrats’ Taylor Swift election interference psyop is happening in the open,” added Laura Loomer, a self-described Islamophobe who has been embraced and promoted by Trump. “It’s not a coincidence that current and former Biden admin officials are propping up Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. They are going to use Taylor Swift as the poster child for their pro-abortion GOTV Campaign.”“The NFL is totally RIGGED for the Kansas City Chiefs, Taylor Swift, Mr. Pfizer (Travis Kelce),” agreed Mike Crispi, a Salem Media host.

Persons: Taylor Swift, Joe Biden, Swift, Jesse Watters, Travis Kelce, Biden, ” Vivek Ramaswamy, ” Ramaswamy, Jack Posobiec, Roseanne Barr, Posobiec, ” Donald Trump, Barr, “ Taylor Swift, ” Benny Johnson, You’re, ” “, ’ Taylor Swift, ”, Laura Loomer, “ It’s, “, Mike Crispi, ‘, ’ Joe Biden, Kelce, ” Crispi, drivel, Jared Holt, ” Holt, they’re Organizations: New York CNN, Kansas City Chiefs, Media, NFL, Democratic Party, Fox News, Pentagon, Chiefs, Pfizer, The New York Times, Super, Trump, Biden, Salem Media, KC, MAGA Media, Republican Party Locations: New York, Salem

☆ Andrew Tate, Ashley St. Clair, and Billy Markus are among the Twitter personalities who say they're getting thousands of dollars under the site's new ad-revenue program
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

In some cases, Twitter has told them to expect tens of thousands of dollars. Billy Markus, the creator of Dogecoin who has 2.1 million followers, tweeted on Thursday that he was getting $37,050. Several accounts connected to Musk were told they'd also be getting payments. Sawyer Merritt, a Tesla investor who posts regular commentary about Musk's businesses, tweeted that Twitter would pay him $6,465. "It makes a lot of cents to create here!," Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino tweeted on Thursday after the program was announced.

Persons: they're, Andrew Tate, Elon Musk's, Billy Markus, Dogecoin, Brian, Ed Krassenstein, Ed, Ashley St, Claire, she'd, Ian Miles Cheong, Benny Johnson, he'd, Rogan O'Handley, Wokeness, Twitter, Musk, Zuby, they'd, Jonas Lismont, Sawyer Merritt, podcaster Jason Calacanis, Linda Yaccarino Organizations: Morning, Twitter, Meta Locations: Romania

☆ Elon Musk reportedly admits Twitter may have been wrong to label NPR as 'state-affiliated media'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Britney Nguyen | Aaron Mcdade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Twitter added a "US state-affiliated media" label to NPR's account on Tuesday. NPR reported Thursday that Elon Musk told the outlet the tag might be an error after learning more about the outlet. The mention of the BBC, which did not see the label added to its accounts, remains on the page. A screenshot of NPR's Twitter profile on Wednesday shows a label reading "US state-affiliated media." Twitter/@NPR"We were disturbed to see last night that Twitter has labeled NPR as 'state-affiliated media,' a description that, per Twitter's own guidelines, does not apply to NPR," NPR President and CEO John Lansing said in a statement shared with Insider.

On Tuesday, for example, Fox News host Sean Hannity said Republicans “have been unwilling for whatever reason” to vote early and by mail. Ahead of the general election, registered Democrats held an 8-point edge over registered Republicans in Georgia in early voting. Now about to enter his seventh term, Schweikert said that Republicans in his state used to enjoy a robust early voting edge. Kirk, who had raised concerns about mail-in voting, changed his tune after the November midterms, tweeting that Republicans must recognize the “power of early voting.” But Johnson has called for a ban on mail-in voting. At the forefront of GOP concerns over early voting is Pennsylvania, where Democrats enjoyed an edge so substantial that Republicans did not come close to overcoming it.

While Maricopa County election officials initially categorized the problem as a "hiccup," it took hours before a solution was identified early Tuesday afternoon. An adjucation board reviews ballots at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center on Tuesday in Phoenix. John Moore / Getty ImagesIn 2020, Joe Biden won Maricopa County by about 6,000 of the more than 2 million votes cast there. When Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema won her seat in 2018, she did so with 50% of the statewide vote, including the 51% she took in Maricopa County. Maricopa County election officials responded that the tweet was inaccurate and "all voters are being served."

Imitation is said to be the sincerest form of flattery — although Twitter owner Elon Musk may not see it that way. The decisions to lock all three out of their Twitter accounts come as Musk, a self-proclaimed "free speech absolutist," draws intense scrutiny for how he handles speech issues on the platform. Griffin, Klein and Sommer all appeared to change their account names on their verified profiles to "Elon Musk" without indicating that they were parodying his account. As of Monday morning, many Twitter accounts still featured "Elon Musk" in their display names, while others added the "parody" disclaimer. In a caption to one of the screenshots, Klein wrote: "Comedy is dead elon musk killed it."

☆ Elon Musk jokes that AOC's Twitter troubles were 'a naked abuse of power'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk joked that when AOC's Twitter account stopped working it was "a naked abuse of power." The lawmaker said her account stopped working after a spat with Musk, who now owns Twitter. It was a naked abuse of power." Their latest spat began after Ocasio-Cortez criticized Musk's plan to charge Twitter users $8 for blue ticks. Twitter, Musk, and representatives for Ocasio-Cortez didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Elon Musk set the tone for his first full day as head of Twitter with a response to @catturd2. “I will be digging in more today,” Musk tweeted in response Friday morning. As of Friday morning, Trump’s account was still suspended, and trending topics included everything from the news of the day (Paul Pelosi) to culture (#FridayFeeling, Rihanna). “Elon” was one of the top trending topics of the morning, and many conservative influencers who had been critical of Twitter’s moderation were already celebrating what they saw as a tectonic shift. Those downloads, however, are still less than 5,000 per day, while Twitter often still sees hundreds of thousands of downloads per day, according to Adam Blacker, vice president of insights at Apptopia.

☆ Conservatives and anti-vaxxers are frantically lobbying Elon Musk to lift Twitter bans on their idols after he took over
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

An assortment of conservatives are lobbying Elon Musk to undo Twitter bans on prominent allies. Musk has said he opposes permanent bans and plans to roll back moderation on Twitter. But Twitter is enforcing legal sanctions on the networks in the EU and UK which prevents people seeing their content. Twitter has said it never shadowbans anybody, though Musk said Friday he was "digging in" to the allegations. Evolutionary biologist and podcaster Bret Weinstein, who has long questioned COVID-19 vaccine efficacy, also called for Musk to reinstate anti-vaxxer Dr Robert Malone.

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