While Facebook has been accused of turning a blind eye to the false information behind the 2021 Capitol assault, X (formerly Twitter) could play an active role in questioning the legitimacy of the vote. Especially if Donald Trump, a candidate supported by his boss Elon Musk, lost to Kamala Harris.
Awaiting the official day of the US presidential elections, on November 5, Musk is intensifying his efforts to invite Donald Trump’s followers to share hypotheses of electoral fraud.
“Election integrity”
This October 30, Elon Musk published a message inviting X users to report any attempted fraud during the US presidential elections. Although tens of millions of Americans have already been able to vote in advance, Elon Musk redirects in his message to a page created especially by him, called “Election Integrity.”
To do this, Elon Musk uses a sometimes little-known feature of Twitter, which allows you to create a news feed on a specific topic, like a Facebook group.
Seen by more than 32 million people, Elon Musk’s tweet has already pushed more than 50,000 Internet users to subscribe to this Twitter group. As the American media NPR points out, there are a multitude of publications by (pro-Trump) Internet users that evoke alleged electoral fraud, especially in the seven key states. Most of them are not based on any verification or have been denied.
As NPR notes, widely circulated messages, for example, report flipped votes in Georgia – which has again been denied – or that foreigners could vote with a simple driver’s license. A claim based on the conspiracy theory that Democrats are secretly allowing foreigners into the United States so they can vote for them.
King of interjections or questions.
In addition to this new Twitter page created for the occasion, Elon Musk uses his own account to spread conspiracy theories around fraud. The latter are close, or even identical, to those that led to the coup attempt by Donald Trump’s supporters after his defeat against Joe Biden in 2020.
This October 30, Elon Musk released a video that evoked technical problems with the voting machines of the manufacturer Dominion, which were already at the center of rumors in 2020. If Musk is careful not to specify that, according to the company’s own site source of the video, Relays, this technical problem does not influence the fact of being able to vote for the candidate of his choice, he contents himself with an interrogative comment: “What is happening, Dominion?”
For Elon Musk, simply highlighting a misleading video or content is enough to spread a rumor. For example, his simple question about Dominion has been viewed more than 25 million times.
By contenting himself with sharing accompanied by a simple question, Elon Musk also reduces his legal risks, particularly defamation proceedings. In 2023, Fox News had to pay nearly $800 million in compensation to Dominion after lying about alleged tampering with voting machines during the 2020 election.
On October 23, Elon Musk also shared false information about a homeless center that would house 5,200 voters (again denied), accompanied by the comment “That’s crazy.” If the initial publication had 16 million views, the replacement of X’s boss allowed him to double the bet, with 16 million additional views.
Call to the community
This October 30, Musk also posted a tweet in which he listed alleged electoral fraud (part of which has already been denied), accompanied by the simple comment “wow.” Also in this case it allowed the publication to double its number of views, reaching 12 million.
More regularly, Elon Musk expands on other false information, this time responding with comments like “it’s very suspicious” or even “!!”.
But the use of these interjections is not the only way that Elon Musk has to benefit from the risky theories of his large audience. the head of
On October 20, he twice broadcast false information related to overseas voters and possible irregularities in Michigan. In both cases, Community Notes were later added to clarify that the information was false. But alone, Elon Musk’s two posts now have 47 million views. They are always online.
Source: BFM TV