Elon Musk chuffed by role of citizen journalism in Trump’s shooting

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is advocating for the merits of citizen journalism through social media platforms such as X.

This after a campaign rally in Pennsylvania where Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old, allegedly attempted to assassinate Donald Trump. The former president sustained a wound on his ear before secret service agents killed Crooks.

Musk seized the moment to highlight the role played by citizen journalists who posted about the shooting using X, the platform he acquired in a $44bn deal in 2022. 

“X usage hit another all-time high yesterday with 417-billion user-seconds globally. In the US, user-seconds reached 93-billion, 23% higher than the previous record of 76-billion in a single day,” he said.

“Timely truth is immensely important for the collective consciousness to function well. X is the voice of the people.”

Musk's advocacy for citizen journalism is not new.

In a Twitter post last year he said: “Citizen journalism is the path to a better future. I strongly encourage people around the world to post news about events as they’re happening, in both text and video.”

In the aftermath of the rally incident, public figures including US President Joe Biden and former president Barack Obama voiced support for Trump's recovery, calling for civility and respect in political discourse.

“There's no place in America for this kind of violence, or any violence. An assassination attempt is contrary to everything we stand for as a nation. It’s not America, and we cannot allow this to happen,” said Biden.

Obama said: “There is absolutely no place for political violence in our democracy. Though we don’t yet know exactly what happened, we should all be relieved that former president Trump wasn’t seriously hurt, and use this moment to recommit ourselves to civility and respect in our politics. Michelle and I are wishing him a quick recovery.” 

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