[Reading-hall-of-fame] Musk posts baseless conspiracy theory about Paul Pelosi attack

[Colin Harrison]

Hi everyone

Apologies for yet another political posting….  This time on the topic of digital literacy

Below is a letter I’ve sent to the editor of The Guardian today.

It probably won’t get published, but at least you all get to hear about ELINET<https://elinet.pro/>.

Best regards

Colin

Dear editor

If posting baseless conspiracy theory stories that are immediately reposted and that gain tens of thousands of 'likes' within hours is Elon Musk's idea of democratising social media, then I'm going to follow the lead of other European academics who have contacted me today from Germany and the Netherlands to say that they are permanently unsubscribing from Twitter (Musk posts baseless conspiracy theory about Paul Pelosi attack on Twitter, Guardian, 30 October). I've spent much of the last ten years researching how best to educate young people into becoming safe and confident Internet users, but this becomes more difficult every day. Academics and teachers need to let Musk know that his thoughtless and dangerous behaviour does not broaden democracy. Instead, it supports the view, already held by tens of millions of Americans, that if you don't like the world that democracy has given you, you simply use money and violence (amplified by social media) to eliminate it. Twitter has a unique foothold within social media and is widely used by academics, but ELINET, a research consortium of literacy academics from 28 European nations, has already unsubscribed. Musk needs to learn what Kanye West learned last week: that social media actions have consequences.

Yours sincerely

Colin Harrison
Emeritus Professor of Literacy Studies in Education, University of Nottingham



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