Mark Ruffalo apologizes for 'inflammatory' posts on Israel-Hamas conflict
Two prominent Hollywood actors walk back statements made on social media dealing with international issues; Vivek Ramaswamy reacts on "Fox News @ Night."
Mark Ruffalo blamed "disinformation" on Elon Musk's X platform after mistakenly sharing AI-generated fakes of former President Trump supposedly surrounded by young girls on late-pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's plane.
"Gross. #MAGA wants to paint everyone on those flights as pedophiles except the one guy who smiles in a group of young girls all headed to Epstein’s 'Fantasy Island' with him. My bet is there are some decent republicans left in America that may think this is going too far," the actor wrote in his initial post in which he shared the fabricated photos on Jan 4.
X users called out Ruffalo through community notes – a feature that allows contributors to add context to posts – noting that Trump's jacket was partially blurred on one side while one girl's arm was missing and the shadows behind the group were distorted.
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Mark Ruffalo attends the 2024 Palm Springs International Film Festival Film Awards at Palm Springs Convention Center on January 04, 2024, in Palm Springs, California. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
The "Avengers" actor later apologized for the mishap, acknowledging the mistake while calling out X CEO Elon Musk for allowing fake content to circulate on the platform in a separate post.
"Sorry Folks. Apparently these images are AI fakes. The fact Trump was on Epstein’s plane and what Epstein was up to is not," he wrote.
"Be careful. Elon’s X and his allowing so much disinformation here is driving the value of his app down by 55%."
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Elon Musk (Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The "Avengers" actor linked to a Business Insider article from October 2023 that reported X "has been bleeding nearly $70 million per day in value since Elon Musk took over."
Musk offered his own subtle feedback through responses to other users who called out the mistake. In one reply, the businessman and investor wrote, "He's [Ruffalo is] not great at internalizing responsibility."
Trump's name was among hundreds that were previously redacted from court documents in a lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein's former lover and accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, but he was not accused of any wrongdoing.
Former President Clinton, Prince Andrew, and the late former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson were other names mentioned, but a number of those released are also accused of no wrongdoing.
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Ruffalo has been outspoken on a number of political and social topics in the past, including climate change, the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021, and capitalism, which he vehemently opposes.
He has also taken several jabs at Trump in the past, calling him "public enemy number one" when it comes to climate change and joining a chorus of other celebrities who called for the 45th president to be removed from office after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
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