Elon Musk tweets conspiracy theory about Paul Pelosi attack

() — Elon Musk on Sunday credited a fringe conspiracy theory about the violent attack on Paul Pelosi.

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 pm, 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.

A Twitter spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Musk acquisition, which was finalized Thursday night, not only has the potential to create a stir for Twitter employees (TWTR), but also for the hundreds of millions of people around the world who use the platform on a daily basis. . It could also affect the upcoming US midterm elections, if Musk makes good on his promise to restore the accounts of users previously banned from the platform, notably former US President Donald Trump, and limit restrictions on company content.

In the first weeks after agreeing to buy the company in April, and before his initial move to abandon the deal, Musk repeatedly stressed that his goal was to bolster “free speech” on the platform and work to “unlock” the “extraordinary potential” from Twitter. The Tesla CEO suggested that he would rethink Twitter’s approach to content moderation and permanent bans, with potential impacts on civil discourse and the political landscape. He also spoke about his desire to remove bots from the platform, even as he later made the number of bots a central point in his argument for leaving the deal.

‘s Clare Duffy contributed to this report