The White House has deleted a tweet that claimed that Biden was responsible for an increase in Social Security payments after Twitter fact checked the tweet to point out that the increase is due to inflation. Fox News. The tweet said "Seniors are getting the biggest increase in their Social Security checks in 10 years through President Biden's leadership". Twitter added a note that explained that the increase in social security was not due to Biden's actions, but because the payments are based on inflation. The check was made by Twitter's new context note feature. Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, has promised to remove bias from the platform and to remove misinformation. Social Security will rise by 8.7% next year, which is the biggest cost of living increase since 1981.
My Comment:
There is absolutely a new sheriff in town at Twitter. The idea that it would be a Democrat getting fact checked on the platform, let alone the White House itself, would have been utterly unthinkable just a few days ago. In the past the fact checks only went one way and sometimes claimed true things were false.
The White House and Joe Biden certainly deserved the fact check in this case. I guess it is true that Biden caused the increase in Social Security, but that's because he's a major driver of inflation. It was an act of utter audacity to claim that the act was something that Biden and the White House did it on purpose. Social Security payments are not caused by the President, they are caused by the economy, and when the economy is tanking like it is today, they will skyrocket. It's absolutely not a good thing.
The White House must be seething at this. Biden has to know that the only reason he even had a chance at winning in 2020 was because how completely censored social media was in favor of him. Twitter, Facebook and the rest all did whatever they could to hide the Hunter Biden story, which, if it had gotten the social media coverage it deserved, Biden would be rotting in Delaware right now instead of the White House.
Indeed, I think this fact check alone might help the Republicans in 2022. Biden was trying to appeal to retired people who might not be as savvy as normal voters and that effort is going to be torpedoed now. Biden can't lie about Social Security (at least in this particular way) and that might gain Republicans a few votes.
Some people are still upset that Elon Musk hasn't simply unbanned everyone instantly, or switched to being as hard on the left as the former Twitter people were on the right. I always thought that was naïve as it would be pretty much impossible to just unban everyone.
But I think this case shows how important having Elon Musk in charge now is. Democrats are used to being able to lie without any consequences and now, on Twitter at least, that is no longer true. And elections can be decided on social media today. If Democrats win in 2024 than it will because it was fair and square and not because they censored all opposition to them.
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