Twitter’s new owner tweeted a link to an article filled with unsubstantiated claims about Pelosi. The article was published on a website purporting to be a media outlet.
Musk, who has 112 million followers on the platform he now owns, posted the baseless story about Pelosi in response to a tweet from Hilary Clinton at 8:15 a.m. ET. He later deleted the tweet around 2 p.m., but not before racking up more than 28,000 retweets and 100,000 likes.
With a link to a Los Angeles Times story about Pelosi’s alleged attacker, Clinton wrote: “The GOP and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and subvert conspiracy theories. It is shocking, but not surprising, that violence is the result. As citizens, we must hold them accountable for their words and the actions that follow.”
In response, Musk linked to the unsubstantiated story, writing: “There is a small chance that there is more to this story than meets the eye.”
In 2016, the same website falsely claimed that Clinton had died and that the person on the presidential campaign trail was not Clinton but her body double.
Musk’s post comes amid concerns about how the billionaire will run Twitter and whether misinformation and hate will get a bigger platform on the site.