How Elon Musk and his X attempted to influence US elections, decode experts
US elections 2024: Elon Musk has thrown his support behind Donald Trump, who is locked in an exceptionally close race against Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. Social media watchdogs claimed that Musk and X are epicenter of US election misinformation.
US Election 2024: The stage is set for the crucial Presidential election in the USA today as millions of voters will elect their next President on Tuesday (November 5). There is a tough fight between Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump. Meanwhile, billionaire Elon Musk, who endorsed the candidature of Trump, is facing serious allegations of influencing the US polls by spreading fake claims on social media platform X which he owns.
False or misleading claims by Musk about the US election have amassed 2 billion views on social media platform X this year, according to a report, opens new tab by non-profit group Center for Countering Digital Hate.
Musk's X is also playing a central role in enabling the spread of false information about the critical battleground states that will likely determine the outcome of the presidential race, election and misinformation experts said on Monday.
A spokesperson for X said the company's Community Notes feature, which lets users add additional context to posts, is more effective at helping people identify misleading content than traditional warning flags on posts.
Since taking over the company formerly known as Twitter, Musk has curtailed content moderation and laid off thousands of employees.
“Network effects” by Musk's 203 million followers
Kathleen Carley, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University and expert on disinformation, said "Musk’s massive reach with nearly 203 million followers helps enable “network effects” in which content on X can jump to other social media and messaging platforms such as Reddit and Telegram. “X is a conduit from one platform to another,” she said.
87 of Musk's posts about the US election rated as false
According to the Center for Countering Digital Hate's report, At least 87 of Musk's posts this year have promoted claims about the US polls that fact-checkers have rated as false or misleading, amassing 2 billion views.
Concerns highlighted in Pennsylvania
Philip Hensley-Robin, Pennsylvania executive director at Common Cause - a nonpartisan organization that promotes accountable government and voting rights - during a press briefing on Monday, said "In Pennsylvania, one of the seven key swing states, some X users have seized on instances of local election administrators flagging incomplete voter registration forms that would not be processed, falsely casting the events as examples of election interference."
Some X accounts implied “that there was voter fraud, when in fact, we know very clearly that election officials and election administrators in all of our counties were following the rules and … therefore only eligible voters are voting,” Hensley-Robin said.
Cyabra, a firm that uses AI to detect online disinformation, said on Monday that an X account with 117,000 followers played a key role in helping spread a fake video purporting to show Pennsylvania mail-in ballots for Trump being destroyed.
X's spokesperson said the platform took action against many accounts that shared the video. Get weekly news and analysis on the U.S. elections and how it matters to the world with the newsletter On the Campaign Trail. Sign up here.
(With Reuters Inputs)
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