"Attempting to invalidate random quotes you read on the internet by taking them to logical extremes is kind of missing the point."

- Albert Einstein

I see this more as "do not assume until there's evidence of malice". Not that you should not look for evidence - basically, innocent until proven guilty. There's a tendency to judge every ignorant act as malice when, a lot of times, it's just that - ignorance/incompetence.

Not talking specifically about this case, although it may apply, we just read a twitter thread.

The first two words of the rule are "never assume".

Reductio ad absurdum.

If you were really honest about the meaning of the quote you should say "never assume malice" because that's the actual statement here.

Not at all. If you have two equally likely possibilities - malice and incompetence - you should assume incompetence.

I have another saying though: “Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice”.

It's not "never investigate". It's "never assume".