Elon Musk's digital misinformation dilemma deepens

On 22 October 2024, Musk shared an image, purportedly a screenshot from "The Atlantic" magazine, titled "Trump is Hitler." The magazine refuted this information, stating that "the fake headline distorts an article from The Atlantic, published on 22 October 2024, titled 'Trump: I Need Generals Like the Ones Hitler Had'."

This is 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.

Musk has repeatedly suggested that illegal immigrants will influence election results, even though they do not have the right to vote. He wrote 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 naturalisation 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 £630 million, clarified that their machines are secure, and ballots are verified manually. - This procedure shows that our machines provide accurate results – a Dominion representative stated.

Journalists from CBS News examined Musk's posts and determined that 55% of them contain false or misleading information. In an article published on 21 October 2024, CBS News emphasised, 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."

Elon Musk is also the subject of false information. The Disinformation Chronicle portal reported that Harris’s campaign adviser, Morgan McSweeney, plans to "kill Musk’s Twitter." This information was supposedly sourced from the UK Centre 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.

In October 2024, a rumour surfaced that Musk promised Trump £4 billion for his campaign, which was not true. 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 the platform X to achieve such a milestone. Musk's posts between 30 September and 14 October garnered over 600 million views and received over 5.3 million likes.