A sizeable portion of Twitter's user base is propagandists pushing psychological operations or "psy ops," according to Elon Musk, the new head of the Twitter empire.
"The amount of pro psy ops on Twitter is ridiculous!" Musk tweeted, adding the joke that "at least with new Verified, they will pay $8 for the privilege – haha." (Related: In 2014, Elon Musk warned that artificial intelligence [AI] has the potential to completely wipe out humanity.)
When later asked to explain the nature of these psy ops, Musk clarified that most of them appear to be "mid"-level rather than professional, adding that "it's mostly basic."
A psy op, simply put, is an operation usually led by state actors such as the military that aims to disseminate propaganda for the purpose of psychological warfare and the manipulation of a target's thoughts or beliefs.
It is unclear specifically what Musk is referring to by "pro psy ops," but we can only assume that there are a lot of alphabet agencies infesting Twitter and spreading lies and deception as if they were normal people.
Is Twitter one of the deep state's go-to platforms for spreading propaganda?
As you may recall, reports emerged in 2018 to suggest that thousands of Twitter accounts encompassing more than 10 million tweets were tied to "foreign interference in political conversations."
"It is clear that information operations and coordinated inauthentic behavior will not cease," the company said at the time.
"These types of tactics have been around for far longer than Twitter has existed – they will adapt and change as the geopolitical terrain evolves worldwide and as new technologies emerge."
About a year ago before Musk took over, Twitter reportedly axed some 3,000 accounts known to be operating as foreign state-linked propaganda operations. These accounts were tied to countries like China, Russia, and Venezuela, we are told.
In most cases, Twitter claimed at the time, accounts identified as propaganda disseminators are suspended once identified. According to Musk, however, there are still plenty of psy op accounts plaguing the Twitter platform.
Twitter's official policies state that users are prohibited from using the platform to "artificially amplify or suppress information or engage in behavior that manipulates or disrupts people's experience," which is exactly what these psy op accounts are doing.
"Prohibited actions include artificially inflating followers or engagement by, for instance, buying 'likes' or coordinating to exchange 'follows,' in what's known as 'reciprocal inflation,'" one report explains.
Prior to Musk's takeover, Twitter had also announced the launch of a Twitter Moderation Research Consortium (TMRC), a program that aimed to let outside researchers access internal company data for the purpose of studying trends and platform governance issues.
It is unclear what will become of the TMRC now that Musk is at the helm, though we do know that he announced the establishment of a "content moderation council" to represent "widely diverse viewpoints."
While also stating that he does not want Twitter to become a "free-for-all hellscape," Musk continues to tout himself as a "free-speech absolutist" who is committed to making Twitter fairer and more welcoming to non-leftist viewpoints, which up until this point have been largely censored.
"I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands, and will no longer be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs that truly hate our country," wrote former President Donald Trump in a post on Truth Social, a Twitter alternative.
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