Activists: Elon Musk should review Jackson Hinkle for fake X engagement

Legal activists on Tuesday called on X owner Elon Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino to investigate American Communist influencer Jackson Hinkle for fake social media engagement ahead of the 2024 American elections.

Zachor Legal Institute alerted Musk and Yaccarino that Hinkle, who routinely posts false information about the Israel-Hamas War and content in favor of dictatorships, that his account "can be used to manipulate American public opinion by using fake engagements to amplify posts with misinformation, hate speech, and other forms of harassment, in violation of X’s rules and policies."

'Zionist hit piece'

The institute cited a New York Times report last Thursday on how Israeli research company Cyabra had found that from a sample of 12,510 of Hinkle's followers, roughly 40% were fake. Hinkle's popularity on X had skyrocketed by 1.2 million followers in the first 19 days of the war, which the Zachor letter suggested was fueled by fake engagement.

Another Israeli research company, Next Dim, according to the Times said that a network of pro-China accounts had boosted Hinkle's content at the beginning of the war. Hinkle called the Times article a "zionist hit piece."

"We therefore urge you to investigate the claims of inauthentic activity surrounding Hinkle’s account and to suspend any fake accounts that follow him and amplify his posts inauthentically," said Zachor.

Zachor gave examples of Hinkle posting provocative false information such as claims on Sunday that "Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared that Russia will support Iran if the United States attacks Iran's soil in support of Israel." Hinkle called on followers to rate the community note paced on his report as incorrect.

Zachor also referred to his claims that an image of a child killed by Hamas during the October 7 Massacre was AI generated, and posted images from Syria and presented them as being from Gaza.

"The fact that a popular influencer like Hinkle posts misinformation while also engaging with and receiving support from fake social media activists, can be a potential tool for foreign actors to influence public discourse," said Zachor. "Any state or non-state actor with malicious intent can amplify Hinkle’s lies in pursuit of their interest, and it will go unnoticed by X, its users, and US law enforcement."

Musk wrote on X on Thursday that he was concerned about engagement farming, manipulation of audiences to inflate online popularity through provocative content. It is unclear if he was also taking action against other forms of manipulative online engagement.

"Any accounts doing engagement farming will be suspended and traced to source," said Musk.