The social media giant has struggled with a rise in fake news since the Tesla chief’s takeover of the company.
Jimmy Fallon is not dead, and Jimmy Fallon wants people to know that.
A scurrilous hashtag, #RIPJimmyFallon, has been trending on Twitter Tuesday night and The Tonight Show host has had enough, calling on the company’s CEO Elon Musk personally to take down the hashtag.
Earlier on Tuesday, the more mischief-making element on Twitter launched #RIPJimmyFallon, with users posting the hashtag often with a picture of someone other than Fallon.
Twitter users, particularly those abroad, who weren’t in on the supposed joke were shocked and confused. One Korean user tweeted, “This came up as a hashtag, so I was taken aback. Really. Oh, it’s funny. Because Melon Musk fired all the people in the information confirmation department, now fake news can hit the market, so this hashtag. Oh, it’s funny real #RIPJimmyFallon.”
Perturbed, Fallon tweeted, “Elon, can you fix this? #RIPJimmyFallon.” Musk, who has taken a highly personal approach to content moderation since he took over Twitter, has yet to respond to Fallon’s plea.
Twitter’s current chaos has seen an uptick in disinformation on the platform, a situation compounded by Musk firing a significant number of people involved with content moderation and dealing with fake accounts and fake news.
Last Thursday, an account using the name and logo of the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co. and carrying a blue “verified” checkmark tweeted, “We are excited to announce insulin is free now.” The fake tweet led to the pharma company’s stock dropping from $368 a share to $346 a share, which reportedly erased billions in market cap.
