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Musk’s election lies go hundreds of times further than officials’ fact-checks on X – NBC New York
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Musk’s election lies go hundreds of times further than officials’ fact-checks on X – NBC New York

While Elon Musk continues to aggressively share conspiracy theories and misinformation about the election in X, election officials are pushing back.

But while they may be speaking out to oppose Musk, who has owned the X since 2022, they are drowning in a platform that seemingly promotes frauds.

Corrections to Musk’s lies from election officials like Michigan County Clerk Barb Bynum, who regularly uses her account with 25,000 followers to share accurate information about how elections work, have often received far less engagement on the platform.

From the first female president to the first bearded vice president since 1933. Whoever wins will make history as America heads to the polls this November.

“My microphone is much smaller than the owner of Twitter, but I still have to use my platform to correct misinformation and disinformation, especially when it comes to election administration and the integrity of our elections,” Bynum said in an interview with NBC News. .

On three occasions last month, Musk’s posts highlighting election-related misinformation were viewed 200 times more than fact-checking posts correcting claims posted on X by government officials or accounts.

Musk frequently pushes false claims about voting in the United States and rarely offers corrections when caught sharing them. The false claims he posted this month routinely garner tens of millions of views, according to X’s metrics, while rebuttals from election officials typically receive only tens or hundreds of thousands.

Musk, who declared Donald Trump’s all-out support for his July presidential campaign is at least confronting 11 lawsuits and regulatory battles It involves various companies under the Biden administration.

Earlier this week, Musk breathed new life into a fake election conspiracy theory: That Michigan registered more voters than voting-age adults, indicating mass fraud in the swing state.

Bynum released a statement: Federal law requires the state to keep voters on voter rolls until they miss two elections. Inactive voters cannot receive a ballot.

Musk’s article It received 32.2 million views. Bynum’s most widely watched The post on the subject hit 63,000. Community Note, a feature that allows specific X users to vote to add context to posts, was later added to Musk’s statement, which included details highlighted by Bynum. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson also spoke about Musk’s tweet, which became national news and was viewed 33 million times. But the amount of attention Benson has received among officials trying to counter Musk’s misinformation is unusual.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in Washington, D.C., on September 11
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in Washington, D.C., on September 11 (Bonnie Cash/Getty Images (File))

Musk’s posts on X are almost inevitable. She has 202.2 million followers, by far the biggest following of anyone on the platform. After Musk bought the site commissioned engineers Making his posts appear more frequently in the feeds of even people who don’t follow him, according to news on the technology news site. platform game and “Character Limit,” a book about Musk’s takeover of Twitter by New York Times reporters Kate Conger and Ryan Mac. (NBC News has not independently confirmed this news.)

On Tuesday, Musk shared a post. claim That a Philadelphia homeless shelter that serves as a relief mailing address for 5,200 people serves as a front for the “harvesting” of ballots on behalf of “transients.” Musk’s post did not address the fact that Americans are not legally required to own a home to vote and can use a shelter to register.

Republican Philadelphia city commissioner Seth Bluestein corrected Musk: Not everyone who receives help from the shelter uses the shelter to register at this address, and fewer than 150 ballots were sent to the shelter in 2020.

Bluestein’s tweet received 15,400 views to Musk’s 16.2 million.

“Whether you have 200 million followers or one follower, it’s important for everyone to be careful about what they share and get the facts before posting or resharing misinformation,” Bluestein told NBC News.

Musk has a habit of making and sharing false claims to underscore his support for Trump, who has been pushing false claims of voter fraud conspiracies for much of his political career. that on tuesday shared The Atlantic magazine’s spoof cover story titled “Donald Trump is literally Hitler.” Last week At a rally in Pennsylvania, he offered support for the debunked claim that Dominion voting machines were part of a plot to rig the recent US election and falsely claimed they were used in Philadelphia.

He also frequently posts to support the false claim that non-citizens systematically vote in US elections. conspiracy theory studied by conservative groups If Kamala Harris wins the presidency, the legal basis will be prepared to object to the election results.

Musk on October 6 shared a claim An election conspiracy theorist claimed that Virginia’s Henrico County was subject to fraud in 2020 because voter turnout in some areas exceeded the number of registered voters.

Official account of Henrico County the next day explained discrepancy: Virginia law required the county to allow voters to cast in-person absentee ballots that did not keep track of which precinct they came from, making the published precinct count inaccurate. The county’s cumulative voter total was accurate: 77% of registered voters in the county voted that year.

Musk’s post received 26.7 million views. It took 102,000 for the county to fix.

Eddie Perez, a member of the OSET Institute, a nonprofit that aims to increase public confidence in elections, and the former head of Twitter’s civic integrity team before Musk acquired the site and laid off those employees, told NBC News that Musk’s approach is said: accidentally or deliberately telling people to trust election conspirators more than rulers.

“It’s telling people, at least implicitly: Don’t trust the people running the elections, trust me, trust x.com, trust Donald Trump. We will give you the real information. And I actually think that’s the most insidious thing that’s going on here,” Perez said.

“You’re constantly developing a kind of armor against rationality, against fact-finding, against the idea that election officials and responsible media can be trusted,” he said.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News: