Elon Musk’s tweets about Texas mall gunman spread misleading claims, question shooter’s background

By DAVID KLEPPER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Misleading claims about the gunman who killed eight people at a Dallas-area shopping center are swirling on Twitter, thanks in part to the platform’s owner, Elon Musk. Musk has questioned the gunman’s self-professed white supremacist views, and says they could be part of a “psychological operation” to mislead the public. He’s offered no evidence, and authorities and independent researchers have noted that the gunman sported large Nazi tattoos and proudly boasted of his racism and misogyny online. Musk has decimated the staff at Twitter dedicated to identifying and removing harmful misinformation since he purchased the platform last year and he’s since emerged as a source of misleading claims himself.