Singer and songwriter Taylor Swift’s repute for penning catchy lyrics and turning a artistic musical phrase may need some social media customers believing she’s the supply of a quote about billionaire Elon Musk.
“‘Elon Musk, the primary human in historical past, to be radicalized by his personal algorithm’ ~ Taylor Swift,” learn the Nov. 15 Threads publish.
We discovered different examples of the identical declare shared on Fb and Instagram.
These posts have been flagged as a part of Meta’s efforts to fight false information and misinformation on its Information Feed. (Learn extra about our partnership with Meta, which owns Fb, Instagram and Threads.)
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We discovered no proof that Swift stated this about Musk. Utilizing Google, we searched for this actual quote being attributed to Swift and located solely social media posts — none of which supplied hyperlinks to credible information experiences or video proof exhibiting she stated this.
We contacted Swift’s spokesperson and acquired no response earlier than publication.
Our searches for comparable quotes have been extra fruitful, however they didn’t lead us again to Swift.
A key phrase search turned up a video of a “BBC Breakfast” interview with Sander van der Linden, a social psychology in society professor on the College of Cambridge.
In that August interview about misinformation within the U.Okay., van der Linden stated this: “I’ve stated earlier than that Elon may be radicalizing himself on his personal platform within the sense that he’s develop into a sufferer of his personal algorithm and that what he’s being fed is low-quality data, which he then engages with after which produces extra of it as a result of he begins to consider it.”
Van der Linden additionally shared the concept in different places.
In The Impartial Aug. 6, van der Linden stated Musk could also be “radicalising himself on his personal platform.” He was quoted within the Enterprise Insider the identical day saying, “Musk is surrounding himself with low-quality data; he’s liking and interesting with it so he sees extra of it. It’s nearly like he’s not realized he’s radicalizing himself on his personal platform.”
Equally, in an Aug. 8 article for The Impartial, a web-based British newspaper, van der Linden wrote that Musk’s spending growing quantities of time on X would possibly clarify his vocal shift towards the political proper.
“He’s liking, participating, and amplifying low-quality content material, which ends up in extra suggestions of comparable content material, reinforcing his personal views and opinions,” van der Linden wrote. “Briefly, he’s created his very personal echo chamber. It’s nearly as if he’s not realising that he’s radicalising himself on his personal platform.”
We contacted van der Linden, and he stated he was the supply of the Musk quote.
“The quote about Elon Musk is certainly mine and I’m not conscious of Taylor Swift making the identical assertion, although I might welcome her opinion on the subject,” he stated.
Misinformation about each Musk and Swift have elevated in latest months as each figures waded into politics throughout the 2024 presidential election.
Swift endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, after the Sept. 10 presidential debate between Harris and President-elect Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.
Musk endorsed Trump in July after a gunman tried to assassinate the previous president in Butler, Pennsylvania. Musk grew to become a vocal Trump proponent who was more and more concerned with campaigning, showing at Trump occasions and donating hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to a pro-Trump political motion committee. After Trump’s win, the president-elect tapped Musk and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a brand new Division of Authorities Effectivity, which he stated will intention to slash spending and rules.
We charge claims that Swift stated Musk was the primary particular person “to be radicalized by his personal algorithm” False.
PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
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