False or misleading claims about the U.S. election that Elon Musk has posted to X this year have generated nearly 1.2 billion views, according to an analysis published Thursday by the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate.
Researchers from the center said they identified 50 instances this year when Musk posted election claims that have been debunked by independent fact-checkers but spread widely on the app anyway.
None of the 50 posts by Musk displayed a “Community Note” to correct his claims or add context, calling into question the effectiveness of X’s user-driven fact-checking system, the center said.
Musk is a supporter of former President Donald Trump, and the report is one of the first efforts to measure the scope of his influence on the election through his presence on X. This is the first presidential contest since Musk bought the app, formerly known as Twitter, and he has its biggest audience, with 193 million followers.
“What Musk is doing is creating a sort of Colosseum-style spectacle of encouraging, amplifying and himself spreading disinformation,” Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, said in a phone interview.
X and Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday ahead of the report’s publication.
Musk appeared to spread more false information Thursday. The news site Politics.co.uk reported that Musk shared a hoax news article about the U.K.’s considering “detainment camps” on the Falkland Islands. The post...
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