A non-governmental organization revealed on Thursday that misleading or incorrect information regarding the U.S. elections published by Elon Musk on his social network "X" has garnered over 1.2 billion views this year, highlighting the American billionaire's influence, a supporter of Donald Trump, on the campaign. The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) cataloged a post about the elections that Musk shared since January and classified it as false or misleading by misinformation specialists.
With 193 million followers on "X," Musk, who purchased the social network in 2022 for $44 billion, claims, for example, that Democrats encourage illegal immigration "to bring in voters." The billionaire also faced severe criticism after sharing a manipulated video of U.S. Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris at the end of July, which received millions of views and was later presented as "mockery."
These messages do not display the usual "context" notes beneath the posts, which users create to provide context for dubious or false messages—an tool that the "X" platform promotes to combat media misinformation.
Imran Ahmed, director of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, said Musk "is exploiting his influential position as owner of a social network that impacts politics to spread misleading information that generates division and distrust." He added that "the absence of notes on these posts shows that his company is unfortunately failing to control algorithm-driven incitements that can lead to real-world violence."
According to lawyer Nora Benavidez, Elon Musk "behaves as if he is untouchable, despite the increasing evidence of the harmful role he plays in fueling misinformation and division ahead of the elections." The platform "X," which did not respond to AFP's request for comment, has significantly reduced its content moderation teams, which were previously tasked with combating misinformation, and has loosened its regulations, making it, according to experts, a hub for false information. Its chatbot, Grok, is also accused of spreading false information about the elections.
