Musk's misinformation marathon: Confusing truth with fiction
On the platform X, owned by Elon Musk, posts often appear containing false or inaccurate information. However, Musk himself also falls victim to fake news, as reported by FakeHunter.
25 October 2024 12:53
On October 22, 2024, Musk shared an image, purportedly a screenshot from "The Atlantic" magazine, titled "Trump is Literally Hitler." The magazine refuted this claim, stating that “the fake headline distorts an article from The Atlantic, which was published on October 22, 2024, titled 'Trump: I Need Generals Like the Ones Hitler Had'."
This is just an example of Musk spreading false information, as he has officially supported the Republicans in the upcoming presidential elections. The topic of elections dominates his social media activity.
Accusations of immigration manipulations
Musk has repeatedly suggested that illegal immigrants will influence the election results, even though they do not have the right to vote. He claimed that Democrats are relocating immigrants to states where votes could be decisive and that they are accelerating citizenship procedures. This information has been debunked – Democrats are not relocating immigrants, and the naturalization procedures have not been expedited.
Musk also spreads conspiracy theories about voting machines, referencing Trump's 2020 allegations.
The issue of Dominion voting machines always arises. It’s strange that they are used in Philadelphia and Maricopa County but not in many other places. Doesn’t that seem like a coincidence? – wrote Musk.
Dominion, the company that won a lawsuit against Fox News for $787 million, clarified that its machines are secure and ballots are verified manually. "This procedure shows that our machines provide accurate results," a Dominion representative stated.
CBS News and The New York Times on disinformation
Journalists from CBS News examined Musk's posts and determined that 55% of them contain false or misleading information. In an article published on October 21, 2024, CBS News emphasized, that 40 accounts Musk interacted with were ones spreading voter fraud theories.
Similar research was conducted by "The New York Times." The newspaper stated that “nearly one-third of the 171 posts published by the owner of X were false, misleading, or lacking significant context.”
In August 2024, Musk shared a deepfake of Kamala Harris. It was a fake video in which Harris spoke on topics she never addressed. Dr. Ilona Dąbrowska from UMCS in Lublin commented to PAP that “Elon Musk, by posting this deepfake on his profile (…), violated his own regulations, which state not to publish false content unless marked as false.”
Musk as a victim of fake news
Elon Musk is also the subject of false information. The Disinformation Chronicle portal reported that Harris’s campaign adviser, Morgan McSweeney, planned to “kill Musk’s Twitter.” This claim was supposedly sourced from the UK Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) action plans.
A false story has circulated for many years that Musk was an illegal immigrant in the USA. PolitiFact verified that Musk legally received Canadian citizenship and later an American student and work visa.
false financial promises
In October 2024, a rumor surfaced that Musk promised Trump $5 billion for his campaign, which was untrue. This information originated from a satirical site, whose contents were mistakenly treated as genuine.
Similarly, there were claims that Musk aimed to acquire ABC television to fire the presidential debate moderators. This was also false.
Elon Musk, with 202 million followers, is the first user of platform X to achieve such a milestone. Musk's posts between September 30 and October 14 garnered over 600 million views and received over 5.3 million likes.
