Elon Musk’s X Platform Fuels US Election Misinformation: Report
Elon Musk’s social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), has become a breeding ground for false and misleading claims about the US election, Al Jazeera reports, citing a new report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
The report highlights that over two billion views have been generated on X this year from posts spreading misinformation about the election, with at least 87 posts by Musk himself promoting claims deemed false or misleading by fact-checkers.
Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has openly endorsed former President Donald Trump, adding fuel to the fire of election misinformation circulating on X.
The report further reveals that X is playing a crucial role in enabling the spread of baseless claims of electoral fraud, particularly in swing states like Pennsylvania. Common Cause, a watchdog organization, notes that X users are misinterpreting instances of local election administrators flagging incomplete voter registration forms as evidence of election interference.
Adding to the concern, AI-powered disinformation detection firm Cyabra revealed that an X account with over 117,000 followers actively disseminated a fake video purporting to show the destruction of Pennsylvania mail-in ballots for Trump.
The report’s findings raise serious concerns about the potential for X to contribute to the spread of misinformation during the upcoming 2024 election. Critics argue that Musk’s lax approach to content moderation on X is enabling the spread of harmful disinformation, threatening the integrity of the democratic process.
