Elon Musk is spreading election misinformation, but X's fact-checkers are long gone
In the spring of 2020, when President Donald J. Trump wrote messages on Twitter warning that greater reliance on mail-in ballots would lead to a “rigged election,” the platform issued a correction: debunk his claims.
“Get the facts about voting by mail,” read one content label. “Experts say mail-in ballots are very rarely linked to voter fraud,” the hyperlinked article said.
This month, Elon Musk, who has since purchased Twitter and renamed it -citizens.
This time, there were no fact checks. And thanks to the X algorithm – under Musk's direct control – the posts reached a large audience, in some cases being viewed many millions of times.
Since taking control of the site, Mr Musk has dismantled the platform's system for flagging false election content, arguing that this amounted to election interference.
Now his early election-year attacks on a proven voting method are raising alarms among civil rights advocates, election administrators and Democrats. They fear that his control of the major social media platform gives him an outsized ability to reignite doubts about the US election system that were so widespread in the lead-up to the riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
As Trump's victory in New Hampshire moved the race closer to general election territory, the Biden campaign for the first time directly criticized Mr Musk for his handling of election content on sow. about how our elections work,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez said in a statement to The New York Times this week.
“It is even more dangerous coming from the owner of a social media platform,” she added.
What angers the Biden campaign is delighting pro-Trump Republicans and others who portray the old Twitter as part of a government-controlled censorship regime that helped Mr. Biden in 2020. Under a system now under challenge at the Supreme Court, government officials alerted platforms to posts they deemed dangerous, although it was up to the companies whether or not to take action.
“Oh, boohoo,” Harmeet K. Dhillon, a lawyer whose firm represents Trump, said of the Democrats' complaints. Mrs. Dhillon has filed a lawsuit the company for suspending the account of a customer who rejected voting after receiving a notice from California election officials — the kind of government interaction Mr. Musk has rejected. Noting that the platform is now “a much better place for conservatives,” she said of Mr. Musk, “He's great.”
X did not respond to a request for comment. Earlier this week the CEO said, Linda Yaccarinowrote in a blog post that the platform had expanded its alternative approach to fact-checking disinformation – crowdsourced “community notes'written by users.
No such notes appeared on Mr. Musk's voice messages. But they were on a post that made the wild claim that Mr. Biden won the New Hampshire primary solely through ballots.
The freer flow of false voting information is hardly the only perceived threat to elections built on social platforms, with the rise of artificial intelligence, increasingly realistic deep fakes and a growing acceptance of political violence.
That Mr. Biden's campaign would pick Mr. Musk points to the unique role he already plays in the 2024 election.
No major media owner in modern times has used their national platform to stake themselves so personally and aggressively in an American election.
Although Rupert Murdoch's conservative media empire, which includes Fox News, has exerted unparalleled influence over American politics for decades, he has remained largely behind the scenes, generally leaving it to his editors, producers and hosts to discuss the details of determine the reporting.
And even though Facebook is bigger than X, its owner, Mark Zuckerberg, is accountable to shareholders and responsive to advertisers. He has tried to avoid being personally drawn into the political fray.
Mr Musk jumped in within days of taking ownership of the site, urging his followers to vote Republican. He has been open in his contempt for Mr. Biden, whose White House has that sometimes responded in kind.
On the other hand, Mr. Musk has no concerns for shareholders at X, which he took private at the end of 2022. He has rejected complaints from advertisers or calls to block content that could undermine confidence in democracy.
Showing a distinctly 21st century form of crude media power, 2020 were stolen. The platform's algorithm – which determines how messages are distributed on the site – now also gives extra promotion to those who pay to be 'verified', including previously banned accounts.
Among them is @kanekoathegreat, a once-banned QAnon influencer who this month distributed a 32-page dossier promoted by Mr. Trump that told of a barrage of false accusations about the 2020 elections.
It attracted almost 22 million views.
In 2020, Twitter is the 'Election Integrity Hub' which had an open line with outside groups and political campaigns, removing or adding context to posts containing misleading information about voting.
Posts with false information about, for example, when and where to vote, would be removed. Those with misleading information about mail-in voting, like Mr. Trump's, would receive notices alerting users to warnings and fact-checking articles.
As Trump and his allies ramped up their attacks on mail-in voting — a preferred method for Democrats during the coronavirus pandemic — Twitter extensive its policy of removing or labeling claims that “undermine faith” in elections.
These measures proved to be only so effective. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and the other major platforms, which had similar measures in place, were also inundated with election lies, and confronted criticism in the months after the Jan. 6 attack that they weren't doing enough.
I agree with critics who say that the measures have led to unfair and one-sided censorship. said Mr. Musk he fired the integrity team last fall because it was essentially “undermining election integrity.” He added: “They're gone.” (Its general manager, Mrs Yaccarino, quickly disputed that characterization and said the work would continue and even be expanded.)
Maya Wiley, the CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, who communicated regularly with the platforms in 2020, said Musk's decision had ripple effects. “It's also been given a free pass to the likes of Facebook and YouTube,” she said.
X is milder policy continues to address posts that incite violence, contain demonstrably false information about voting locations and dates, or are misleading about eligibility laws, “including identification or citizenship requirements.”
Mr. Musk's recent posts appear to violate that rule.
On January 10, he responded to a post about the recent influx of undocumented immigrants by incorrectly writing that “illegals are not prevented from voting in federal elections. This came as a surprise to me.” A few days earlier, Mr. Musk suggested that Mr. Biden and the Democrats were lax on immigration because “they are importing voters,” an echo of the “great replacement” conspiracy theory shared by Mr. Trump around the same time. .
Mr Musk has also raised broader doubts about the US election system. On January 8, he wrote that voters in the United States “do not need a government-issued ID to vote and you can mail in your ballot. This is insane.” The post was viewed 59 million times.
More than half of states require voters to present some form of identification at polls, and most states do not require signatures, affidavits, or dates of birth; federal law requires identification verification of voters when they register.
In November, he heard a story about significant evidence of widespread absentee ballot fraud in Bridgeport, Conn., and wrote, “The only question is how common it is.”
Where Bridgeport's problems are real — so big that a judge has ordered a reconsideration of the Democratic primary — they are also rare. Mail-in ballots have been used for years and, with various safeguards, have proven to be extremely reliable. with mutual acceptanceat least before Mr. Trump intensified criticism of the method.
Mr. Trump has not presented evidence of any significant fraud in any of his lawsuits challenging his 2020 defeat.
That hasn't stopped Mr. Musk from further exacerbating steady doubts about the voting system among millions of Americans, adding to the already fraught climate for election workers as Mr. Trump re-touts his stolen 2024 election lies, according to a report. election official. said.
“It bubbles and keeps the temperature higher,” said Stephen Richer, county recorder in Maricopa County, Arizona, a hot spot for election conspiracy theories. Mr. Richer, a Republican and longtime admirer of Mr. Musk's business achievements, added: “Whether it's President Trump or Mr. Musk talking about this and keeping it a top-of-mind issue, that can potentially make our lives more challenging. .”
The Biden campaign shares that concern. “We will continue to call out this recklessness as we implement President Biden's pledge to protect our elections,” Ms. Chávez Rodríguez said.
However, that is the only option the campaign has: the complaint line between the campaign and the platform is dead.