When Musk gets caught lying, he just lies some more. just like his boss. MAGA attacks people who tell the truth about them. duh
Musk accused Reuters of ‘social deception.’ The deception was his.
The actor and director Ron Howard posted Wednesday on X an article by the news agency Reuters headlined, “Musk’s DOGE cuts based more on political ideology than real cost savings so far.”
An hour later, Elon Musk posted a reply: “I wonder how much money Reuters is getting from the government? Let’s find out.” Before the night’s end, the billionaire leading the Trump administration’s radical cost-cutting campaign was touting what he portrayed as a smoking gun: a screenshot of a U.S. government webpage showing a contract between the Defense Department and Thomson Reuters Special Services for “Active Social Engineering Defense” and “Large Scale Social Deception.”
“Reuters was paid millions of dollars by the US government for ‘large scale social deception,’” Musk proclaimed in an X post that has racked up more than 76,000 shares and 35 million views. “They’re a total scam. Just wow.”
The contract was real, but the Orwellian phrase Musk seized on to suggest a shadowy conspiracy wasn’t what it seems. A slightly closer look would have revealed that the contract, signed during President Donald Trump’s first term, was for help defending against cyberattacks — that is, combating deception, not fueling it. And it went to a separate division of the company, not the news agency.
Musk’s misinterpretation went viral, amplified by Trump as proof of corrupt ties between the “radical left” media and the “deep state.”
The Reuters brouhaha was the latest example of what is quickly becoming a familiar playbook as Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service sweeps through federal agencies for evidence of waste, fraud and corruption. However endemic federal misspending is, Musk has repeatedly misrepresented facts on X to bolster unfounded claims of wrongdoing. Like the U.S. Agency for International Development, Politico and others before it, Reuters has been cast as a villain in a narrative spun by Musk in which nefarious left-wing schemes lurk behind programs he targets for cuts — and those who stand in the way.
But Musk’s viral description of the “Large Scale Social Deception” contract, and his insinuation that it proved the Biden administration had paid Reuters to lie, was misleading. The contract, awarded in 2018, focused on researching “automated defense against social engineering attacks” — an industry term for the manipulative tactics cyberattackers use to gain access to secure networks. The aim was to simulate an adversarial attack to help the Defense Department improve its cyber defenses.
The $9 million multiyear contract was won by the Thomson Reuters conglomerate’s information-technology division, Thomson Reuters Special Services, which operates separately from the Reuters newsroom and has worked on federal projects for decades.
While Musk’s post claimed the spending was uncovered as part of a “DOGE investigation,” the contracting records had been publicly visible online for years; the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency had promoted the project on its website.
Yet Trump followed Musk’s original claim with a Truth Social post urging the “Radical Left Reuters” to “GIVE BACK THE MONEY, NOW!” Late Thursday, hours after the claim had been debunked, Musk doubled down, saying “Reuters was literally paid by the federal government for ‘Large Scale Social Deception.’ That’s literally what it says on the official government documents!!”
In an emailed statement, Thomson Reuters Special Services CEO Steve Rubley said “recent public discourse has conflated” his company with Reuters News, when it is in fact a separate legal entity with its own board of directors. He said its commercial agreements “have no influence over or impact on Reuters editorial coverage.”
Musk accused Reuters of ‘social deception.’ The deception was his.
The actor and director Ron Howard posted Wednesday on X an article by the news agency Reuters headlined, “Musk’s DOGE cuts based more on political ideology than real cost savings so far.”
An hour later, Elon Musk posted a reply: “I wonder how much money Reuters is getting from the government? Let’s find out.” Before the night’s end, the billionaire leading the Trump administration’s radical cost-cutting campaign was touting what he portrayed as a smoking gun: a screenshot of a U.S. government webpage showing a contract between the Defense Department and Thomson Reuters Special Services for “Active Social Engineering Defense” and “Large Scale Social Deception.”
“Reuters was paid millions of dollars by the US government for ‘large scale social deception,’” Musk proclaimed in an X post that has racked up more than 76,000 shares and 35 million views. “They’re a total scam. Just wow.”
The contract was real, but the Orwellian phrase Musk seized on to suggest a shadowy conspiracy wasn’t what it seems. A slightly closer look would have revealed that the contract, signed during President Donald Trump’s first term, was for help defending against cyberattacks — that is, combating deception, not fueling it. And it went to a separate division of the company, not the news agency.
Musk’s misinterpretation went viral, amplified by Trump as proof of corrupt ties between the “radical left” media and the “deep state.”
The Reuters brouhaha was the latest example of what is quickly becoming a familiar playbook as Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service sweeps through federal agencies for evidence of waste, fraud and corruption. However endemic federal misspending is, Musk has repeatedly misrepresented facts on X to bolster unfounded claims of wrongdoing. Like the U.S. Agency for International Development, Politico and others before it, Reuters has been cast as a villain in a narrative spun by Musk in which nefarious left-wing schemes lurk behind programs he targets for cuts — and those who stand in the way.
But Musk’s viral description of the “Large Scale Social Deception” contract, and his insinuation that it proved the Biden administration had paid Reuters to lie, was misleading. The contract, awarded in 2018, focused on researching “automated defense against social engineering attacks” — an industry term for the manipulative tactics cyberattackers use to gain access to secure networks. The aim was to simulate an adversarial attack to help the Defense Department improve its cyber defenses.
The $9 million multiyear contract was won by the Thomson Reuters conglomerate’s information-technology division, Thomson Reuters Special Services, which operates separately from the Reuters newsroom and has worked on federal projects for decades.
While Musk’s post claimed the spending was uncovered as part of a “DOGE investigation,” the contracting records had been publicly visible online for years; the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency had promoted the project on its website.
Yet Trump followed Musk’s original claim with a Truth Social post urging the “Radical Left Reuters” to “GIVE BACK THE MONEY, NOW!” Late Thursday, hours after the claim had been debunked, Musk doubled down, saying “Reuters was literally paid by the federal government for ‘Large Scale Social Deception.’ That’s literally what it says on the official government documents!!”
In an emailed statement, Thomson Reuters Special Services CEO Steve Rubley said “recent public discourse has conflated” his company with Reuters News, when it is in fact a separate legal entity with its own board of directors. He said its commercial agreements “have no influence over or impact on Reuters editorial coverage.”
