International Courant
On a current Sunday night in Virginia, Henrico County Clerk Mark Coakley waited for the beginning of the Cowboys-Steelers NFL recreation, which was postponed as a result of unhealthy climate.
Coakley was scanning X, previously often called Twitter, when he got here throughout a message from the platform’s billionaire proprietor Elon Musk, an outspoken Trump supporter. Musk had reposted a 2023 tweet that falsely claimed that “Virginia election integrity leaders” had discovered fraudulent votes in Henrico County from the 2020 election.
“Is that this correct @CommunityNotes?” Musk posted this message together with the tweet and enabled X’s Group Notes characteristic, which permits customers to self-check a tweet.
Coakley, the county’s high elections official, rushed to reply. On Monday morning, Henrico County’s X account debunked the premise of Musk’s posts in a five-post thread.
“They have been uninformed tweets,” Coakley recalled in an interview with ABC Information. “The media referred to as, mates referred to as me.”
The problem for Coakley: Whereas Musk’s first submit has been considered 27.7 million occasions, Coakley’s response has fewer than 100,000 views. It is a up to date twist on the outdated adage {that a} lie can journey midway world wide whereas the reality continues to be pulling its boots.
As Musk continues to advertise false and deceptive election details about X, election officers have more and more confronted him on his personal platform. However their attain typically pales compared to Musk’s 200 million followers.
Elon Musk, Chief Government Officer of SpaceX and Tesla and proprietor of
David Swanson/Reuters/FILE
“It is simply not a good combat,” stated Larry Norden, a voting knowledgeable on the Brennan Heart for Justice, a nonprofit assume tank.
In Philadelphia, Musk posted one other tweet suggesting that 5,200 voters had registered with the identical handle. “That is insane,” stated Musk.
Seth Bluestein, a Philadelphia County commissioner, responded hours later, tweeting: “The message you shared spreads misinformation.”
However whereas Musk’s first tweet was considered practically 10 million occasions, Bluestein’s response obtained fewer than 10,000 views.
Even some Republican officers have referred to as Musk out on X. Stephen Richer, the GOP recorder in Maricopa County, Arizona, has incessantly feuded with Musk on-line over alleged election misinformation concentrating on the state — and has even provided to contact Musk personally.
“On each earlier submit you’ve got made concerning the Arizona election (all of which have been flawed, however you by no means corrected a single one), I provided my workplace as a useful resource for you (and anybody else) who desires actual solutions to those questions” , Richer advised Musk in a submit in September.
Sam Woolley, a disinformation researcher on the College of Pittsburgh, stated Musk has handled X as his personal “bully pulpit” to assist Trump and denigrate the election system since taking management of the corporate in 2022.
“That is definitely a case of a really highly effective particular person utilizing not solely his possession of the platform, but additionally his capability to manage huge swaths of engagement on the platform for his personal profit and for the advantage of his political allies,” he stated. Woolley.
Not solely are the disinformation narratives promoted by Musk “corrosive to democracy,” Norden stated, however the time and power required to refute them might even undermine the flexibility of election officers to hold out their different election-related work .
“It is distracting,” Norden stated. “We’re placing huge stress on election officers, and if they’ve to reply to a person who’s selling his personal content material on his personal community to unfold lies, it distracts from the important work they need to do. . That is disturbing.”
Musk didn’t reply to a request for remark from ABC Information.
Regardless of the huge on-line attain of the world’s richest man, at the least one election official has managed to match it: Jocelyn Benson, the Michigan secretary of state.
After Musk steered on X that there are extra registered voters within the state than eligible voters, Benson fired again.
“Let’s be clear: @elonmusk is spreading harmful misinformation,” Benson wrote. “These are the details: There aren’t any extra voters than residents in Michigan. There are 7.2 million energetic registered voters and seven.9 eligible residents in our state.”
Musk’s first retweet was considered about 32 million occasions.
However Benson’s response surpassed it, getting 33.5 million.
