Elon Musk spreads American election lies – DW – 11/02/2024

The way the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, becomes involved in American politics shows how billionaires with control of social media can influence public opinion and potentially influence elections.

“Since Elon Musk took over X, the platform has turned into a hell of hate and disinformation — A lot of that comes from Mr Musk himself,” Imran Ahmed, head of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), told DW.

Unlike most tech billionaires and political donors, Musk’s political involvement is highly visible and has intensified in the run-up to the US presidential election on November 5. CCDH report found that Musk’s false or misleading claims about the US election received 1.2 billion views between January and July 2024 on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), which he owns.

Musk’s role as a source of mis- and disinformation extends beyond his own posts. He regularly retweets or engages in false and misleading claims and conspiracy theories, and his involvement gives these messages enormous reach.

Here are three examples of how Musk is spreading false claims in the run-up to the US elections.

1: False narratives about immigrant voting

Claim: In July, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested that Democrats want to “turn illegal aliens into voters.” Musk retweeted this claim, adding that “the goal has always been to import as many illegal voters as possible,” implying that immigrants are being brought into the country to support Democrats. The postal service has received more than 45 million views.

DW fact check: False

Only US citizens can vote in US federal elections. “Noncitizens, including permanent legal residents, cannot vote in federal, state, and most local elections,” explains a statement on USA.gov, an official U.S. government website. Federal law strictly prohibits non-citizens from voting in U.S. presidential elections.

Musk too declared it takes “less than five minutes and no documentation” to be approved as an illegal immigrant using an app and flown to the US at the expense of American taxpayers. Musk reposted a video claiming that using the CBP One app could allow an unlimited number of foreigners to enter the US. The app was developedby the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency and used to schedule asylum processing appointments. However, simply registering in the app does not guarantee entry into the US.

Still, Musk’s post was viewed nearly 20 million times and shared tens of thousands of times.

Under the US immigration law, eligible individuals must apply for asylum while physically present in the U.S., and the decision-making process typically takes years.

2: Posting fake photos of Kamala Harris

Claim: Early September, Musk posted an image showing Democratic candidate Kamala Harris wearing a red communist outfit with a hammer and sickle in her hat, with the caption: “Kamala promises to be a communist dictator on day one. Can you believe they outfit wearing!?” This post quickly went viral and was viewed more than 80 million times.

DW fact check: Fake.

This is not a real picture of Harris. The photo was generated by artificial intelligence, as evidenced by the sharpness of Harris’ image against a blurred background and the unusually bright colors. An advanced AI image detector tool like truemedia.org finds ‘substantial evidence of manipulation’.

Sander van der Linden, professor at the University of Cambridge in Britain and author of “Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity” told DW that disinformation affects the quality of democratic discourse, lowers confidence in the electoral process and outcome “and for some people it could even change the way they vote.”

With a net worth of over $263 billion (€242 billion) according to November ForbesMusk is the richest person in the world, which makes him a unique influencer. He has a large social media presence with over 200 million followers. For comparison, Taylor Swift has more than 500 million followers.

Since taking over Twitter two years ago and renaming it X, Musk has done things like: restore former President Donald Trump’s report, which was suspended following Trump’s controversial posts following the last presidential election in 2020, which he lost. Trump has more than 92 million followers on X, and less than 8 million on its own social media platform Truth Social.

3: Questioning the electoral process

Musk has amplified the claim that there is something wrong with the voter rolls in Michigan, a key swing state. The original statement — that Michigan has more voters than eligible residents — has been debunked by Michigans Election Facts Center.

Claim: Musk doubled in mid-October and accused Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson of dishonesty, writing: “You only plan to remove the ineligible voters AFTER the election. That necessarily means that there are many more people registered to vote than there are eligible voters.”

DW fact check: Misleading.

Below is and federal law in the US, voters are removed from the voter rolls only after they receive a notice that their registration may be canceled and two subsequent federal election cycles have passed without any response or voting activity.

“Michigan has done more to improve the accuracy of our voter rolls in the past five years than in the previous 20 years,” the state said. says on its election information website. “Since 2019, election officials have canceled more than 800,000 voter registrations and identified more than 600,000 voters who will be canceled in 2025 and 2027 once the legally required period of two federal election cycles has passed.”

What motivates Musk?

Musk and Trump have a complex relationship. During Trump’s 2016 campaign, Musk spoke publicly questionedTrump’s fitness for office. Trump and beyond appointedMusk to his own advisory board, a role that Musk ultimately plays leftdue to disagreements about policy.

Van der Linden, from the University of Cambridge, thinks Musk believes a Trump victory would be in his company’s best interests. It could “potentially include more contracts from NASA for SpaceX, more federal contracts for Starlink and free range to run X as he pleases, without government oversight of social media companies,” he said.

BR24’s Michael Schlegel contributed to this piece.

Edited by: Joscha Weber, Sarah Steffen