Elon Musk regularly tweets and shares controversial things on Twitter, but now that he's the boss, his actions take on new significance. In this photo, Musk arrives for the Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 2, 2022, in New York. ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
A poll worker handles ballots for the midterm election, in the presence of observers from both Democrat and Republican parties, at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Elections Center in Phoenix on Oct. 25. Olivier Touron/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Conspiracy theories about Brazil's electronic voting machines, shown here, have spread online. Far-right influencers in the U.S. have seized on Brazil's election as a way of keeping conspiratorial narratives alive ahead of the U.S. midterms in early November. Caio Guatelli/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Billionaire Elon Musk's on-again, off-again bid to acquire Twitter advanced this week after he agreed to pay the $44 billion he had originally offered for the social media site. Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images hide caption
Billionaire Elon Musk has told Twitter he's willing to buy the company after all, and at the originally agreed upon price of $54.20 per share. CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Students of Unified Educational Centers (CEU) attend a lesson on 'Fake News: access, security and veracity of information', in Sao Paulo, Brazil on June 21, 2018. Media analysis is a compulsory subject in Brazilian schools. MIGUEL SCHINCARIOL/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Social media company Meta's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. The Facebook parent company says it has removed a Russian network pushing a pro-Kremlin view of the war in Ukraine and a Chinese network targeting the U.S. midterm elections. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption
Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro greets supporters during a reelection campaign rally. Ahead of the first round of voting on Oct. 2, Bolsonaro has baselessly claimed that voting machines will be rigged against him, an echo of former U.S. President Donald Trump's false claims about the 2020 election. Fred Magno/Getty Images hide caption
Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, former head of security at Twitter, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on data security at Twitter, on Capitol Hill, September 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images hide caption
Voters cast their ballots at a polling station set up in a fire station on Aug. 23 in Miami Beach, Fla. Joe Raedle/Getty Images hide caption
Boston Children's Hospital said it had received "threats of violence toward our clinicians and staff" after false claims were made online that the hospital provides genital surgeries to minors. Lane Turner/The Boston Globe via Getty Images hide caption
A jury has ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay millions of dollars for spreading lies about the Sandy Hook school massacre. But his influence in right-wing media and politics remains strong. Matt York/AP hide caption