Elon Musk Pitches ‘Pravda,’ Site to Rate Journalists’ Credibility

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced plans for a new website aimed towards ranking and rating the work of journalists and media companies.

In a series of posts to Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced possible plans to create a website where the public can rate the work of media companies and journalists. Musk stated that he was thinking of calling the website “Pravda,” previously the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Going to create a site where the public can rate the core truth of any article & track the credibility score over time of each journalist, editor & publication. Thinking of calling it Pravda …

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 23, 2018

One Twitter user questioned whether the public would support the project, but Musk claimed to have “faith in the people.”

Enough of the public does care about the truth. I have faith in the people.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 23, 2018

Musk went on a tirade about media companies that “sugarcoat the lie” earlier in the day, calling them “holier-than-thou”

The holier-than-thou hypocrisy of big media companies who lay claim to the truth, but publish only enough to sugarcoat the lie, is why the public no longer respects them https://t.co/Ay2DwCOMkr

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 23, 2018

Musk also claimed that the site would flag “propaganda botnets.”

Create a media credibility rating site (that also flags propaganda botnets)

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 23, 2018

Not only needs to be botproof, but seek & unmask anyone operating a disinformation bot army

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 23, 2018

One user described the project as “Yelp for journalists” referencing the popular restaurant and venue reviewing app,

Tech writer Mark Harris noted that Musk might have already registered the company name Pravda Corp. Musk’s new project was registered as a foreign corporation in the state of Delaware on October 18 of last year. The company’s officer is Jared Birchall, the President of Neuralink and director of The Boring Company, both projects run by Musk.

Musk has claimed that Pravda would move forward “soon as I’m done working on the [Tesla] Model 3.”