Factcheck this: Elon Musk bought Twitter to declare war against the globalist American empire

Question

This tweet says that, according to article, Elon Musk bought Twitter to declare war against the globalist American empire.

You should probably figure out who the guy in the video is, track down the articles and other things he mentioned, etc.

Answer 1

The author of this article is Ben Collins, a reporter for NBC that covers disinformation and extremism, primarily. In the tweet, Collins shares that a Revolver News article titled, "The Battle of the Century: Here’s What Happens if Elon Musk Buys Twitter" lays out a plan to declare-- in the words of the article-- a "war against the Globalist American Empire." Collins goes on to state that the article (published April 1, 2022) was texted to Musk 10 days before his acquisition of the platform (April 14, 2022) by an "unknown user" and that this may explain many of Musk's decisions with the platform.

Collin's Twitter video was released on the same date as an article he published, "What was Elon Musk’s strategy for Twitter?." This article dives into the assumption that the "unknown user" who sent Musk the article was Darren Beattie (former Trump White House speechwriter) and that Musk has been following the article as a playbook.

I would say that the claim that Musk bought Twitter to "declare a war against the globalist American empire" is largely an extrapolated line from the Revolver News article. While Collins makes the case that Musk is using this article referenced as a playbook to make decisions for Twitter, the actual decision to buy Twitter and whatever Musk decides to do with it is not a direct call for fire. Additionally, the original video tweet by Collins never states that Musk bought Twitter to "declare war against the globalist American empire," merely that this article may have influenced Musk's decision in acquiring Twitter.

Comments

I appreciate your thorough investigation and your objective statements. Linking articles that you got your information from helps in fact-checking and people being able to read it themselves to see if they come to the same conclusion and understanding as what you wrote. Would you say that the way it's titled is misleading to people who wouldn't have done the amount of research you have done on this topic?

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I really like and appreciate all the context and information surrounding the article's subject you included in this. Without knowing the timeline of events that preceded the article it could be very hard to explain to someone why this may be inaccurate or misleading information.

Answer 2

The creator of this post is named Ben Collins who works for NBC news. Collins shows a source of why he thinks what he does on this claim which The Battle of the Century: Here’s What Happens if Elon Musk Buys Twitter. Which is a source written back in 2022, which is way before Musk made any intention of buying the platform. The original source also seems shady, the front picture looking as stereotypical fake news as possible. The video also correlates Musk's decisions of past behavior under his managment of Twitter to predict his future outcomes, which is totally ubsurd and holds no grip on reality. The evidence of the claim being a text message sent to Musk before he bought the platform, but with the phone numbers redacted, there is no way to prove this claim.  

Comments

This is a really good critique of the original post. I appreciate you bringing to light the appearance of the news source because sometimes it is obvious. The research digging back into the person who created the theory was helpful as well. Pointing to the phone number being blocked out as well would be a major red flag that this is false. This is something someone would say about a very rich and famous person they hate.