Elon Musk Defends X as Fact-Checking Platform Amid Peter Navarro’s Criticism of India’s Russian Oil Purchases

Elon Musk on Sunday defended his social media platform X as a space where “people decide the narrative,” arguing that it enables all sides of a debate to be heard and is strengthened by fact-checking tools such as Community Notes and Grok.

In a series of posts, Musk criticised mainstream media as “unreliable,” accusing it of “lying relentlessly or ignoring major stories that don’t fit their narrative.” His remarks came hours after Peter Navarro, Senior Counsellor for Trade and Manufacturing to U.S. President Donald Trump, lashed out at X for flagging his comments on India’s purchase of Russian oil as misleading.

Navarro, who described the community note on his post as “crap,” accused Musk of allowing “propaganda” and reiterated his claims that India was purchasing Russian oil solely for profit.

Musk countered by resharing a post suggesting that, unlike traditional outlets which have “lost credibility,” X had become a real-time, transparent, and fact-checkable source of news. “As recent events have shown all too clearly, you can’t trust legacy (formerly mainstream) news at all,” Musk wrote. “They lie relentlessly or simply ignore major stories that don’t fit their collectively decided narrative. On this platform, the people decide the narrative. You hear all sides of an argument. Community Notes corrects everyone, no exceptions.” He further emphasised that Community Notes data and code are open source, with Grok providing additional fact-checking support.

On Monday, Navarro renewed his criticism of X, suggesting in a post that the platform should hold polls to decide whether to allow what he described as “foreign interests masquerading as objective observers” to weigh in on U.S. politics and economics. In another post, he alleged that “Indian special interests” were interfering with American discourse by misrepresenting India’s oil trade with Russia.

Navarro has repeatedly claimed that India’s purchases of Russian crude oil are “purely to profit,” thereby helping finance Moscow’s war in Ukraine. “FACTS: India highest tariffs costs US jobs. India buys Russian oil purely to profit/Revenues feed Russia war machine. Ukrainians/Russians die. US taxpayers shell out more. India can’t handle truth/spins,” he posted on X.

X subsequently added a Community Note clarifying that India’s oil imports from Russia are driven by energy security needs and do not violate sanctions. The note also pointed out that the United States continues to import uranium and minerals from Russia, calling Navarro’s criticism “hypocritical.” It added that while India does levy certain tariffs, the U.S. maintains a trade surplus with India in services.

Navarro’s remarks were made in response to a Washington Post article, which suggested that inflammatory rhetoric from Washington was straining relations with New Delhi, despite efforts by the Trump administration to strengthen ties.