Elon Musk And Platform X Accused Of Being The Center For Distribution Of US Election Misinformation, Here's The Reason

JAKARTA According to a report from the non-profit group Center for Countering Digital Hate, false or misleading claims related to the United States elections submitted by billionaire Elon Musk have reached 2 billion views on social media platform X this year.

Election experts and misinformation state that X, which is owned by Musk, is the center of misinformation about an important state that can determine the outcome of the US presidential election.

An X spokesperson explained that the Community Notes feature, which allows users to add additional contexts to uploads, is more effective at helping people recognize misleading content than traditional warning signs.

However, since taking over Twitter (now X), Musk has reduced content moderation and cut thousands of employees, and expressed his support for Donald Trump, a Republican presidential candidate who is competing closely with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

According to Totalies Carley, professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University and disinformation expert, Musk's wide reach with nearly 203 million followers creates a network effect' that allows content on X to spread to other social media platforms such as Reddit and Telegram. At least 87 Musk posts this year contain claims about US elections that have been declared misleading by fact-checking, with total shows reaching 2 billion.

In Pennsylvania, one of the seven contested states, a number of X users took advantage of the incident when local election administrators marked an incomplete voter registration form, then spread it as if there was election fraud.

Philip Hensley-Robin, Executive Director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, said the incident was actually just part of a normal procedure to ensure only voters met the requirements to participate.

In addition, technology company Cyabra reports that an X account with 117,000 followers plays an important role in spreading fake videos claiming that the ballot for Trump was destroyed. According to spokesperson X, the platform has taken action against several accounts sharing the video.