Can we learn to tell good knowledge from bad? Elon Musk’s “conversation” with Trump continued both men’s war on fact-checking. Here are some tips for separating facts from fiction.
Trump spouts stream of untruths on X
Hype: Donald Trump claimed that “60 million or something” were listening to his triumphal return to X (formerly Twitter) on Monday in a conversation with Elon Musk. Only 1.1 million were listening at that moment. Musk did not correct him. Glossary
Charles Dickens - The Victorian novelist is credited with inventing Christmas as we know it today through the warm descriptions of it in his books.
Elon Musk - A South African-born entrepreneur whose companies have included the online payment service PayPal. He now controls Twitter, renamed 'X'.
X - A social media network, formerly known as Twitter and owned by Elon Musk.
Detroit - The largest city in the US state of Michigan.
AI - A computer programme that has been designed to think.
Misinformation - Incorrect or misleading information unintentionally presented as fact. It can be contrasted with disinformation or deliberate lies.
Correlation - A connection between two things in which one thing changes as the other does, but it is not necessarily the case that one thing has caused the other to change.
Causation - The principle that nothing can happen without a cause.
Jacques Derrida - A controversial French philosopher, born in 1930.