Elon Musk has often inflamed politically tense moments, raising worries for the US election

By ALI SWENSON

NEW YORK (AP) — Hours after an obvious try on Donald Trump’s life over the weekend, Elon Musk took to his social platform X to submit a considering emoji and a remark that “nobody is even attempting to assassinate” the Democratic president and vice chairman.

Within the midst of anti-Muslim riots within the U.Ok. — which had been ginned up by a false rumor — Musk declared that “civil conflict is inevitable” within the nation.

And when an nameless X consumer distorted knowledge to assert a surge in sketchy voter registrations in three U.S. states, Musk amplified the false submit and known as it “extraordinarily regarding.”

All three posts sparked fast backlash from public officers who known as Musk’s phrases irresponsible and deceptive. As his phrases amass thousands and thousands of views and hundreds of shares, additionally they illustrate the power of one of many world’s most influential individuals to unfold worry, hate and misinformation throughout fraught political moments world wide. That is very true as a result of he owns the social platform that was once Twitter, giving Musk the authority to form how its content material reaches customers.

Musk’s inaccurate posts to his 200 million followers alongside along with his web site’s lack of guardrails are elevating considerations about how he may manipulate public belief as Election Day within the U.S. attracts nearer. He lately endorsed Trump’s presidential bid and has develop into extra personally invested in politics — even agreeing to guide a authorities effectivity fee if Trump wins reelection.

Trump gave a shoutout to Musk throughout an occasion on X Monday night, basking within the tech billionaire’s endorsement and referring to him as his “buddy.” Musk didn’t reply to an emailed request for remark.

On the very least, specialists and election officers fear that Musk may affect individuals to query the legitimacy of the vote. However additionally they are involved his phrases may encourage threats and violence towards election staff or candidates.

“X and Musk are elevating the temperature of politics dangerously and irresponsibly at a crucial second,” stated Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the International Undertaking In opposition to Hate and Extremism. “It’s shameful.”

The 53-year-old billionaire who purchased and remodeled Twitter in 2022 has modeled his social media web site as a market of concepts the place individuals can communicate freely with out censorship, a transfer that has been cheered by many conservatives. He usually has touted X as a superior information supply to the mainstream media, one the place customers can submit with out worry and discern the “reality.”

But the modifications Musk has made to the corporate over two years even have allowed false info to unfold largely unchecked.

He has dismantled the corporate’s Belief and Security advisory group and stopped implementing content material moderation and hate speech guidelines that the positioning adopted earlier than his takeover. He has restored the accounts of conspiracy theorists, incentivized engagement on the platform with payouts and content material partnerships, and instituted a Neighborhood Notes characteristic that at instances leads to deceptive feedback being positioned on posts.

Baseless claims from each side of the political spectrum rack up hundreds of shares on Musk’s X. After a gunman shot Trump within the ear in an tried assassination in Pennsylvania, far-left customers shared false conspiracy theories that the previous president had set it up. And after the talk between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, far-right customers unfold a bogus declare that Harris was sporting an earpiece.

Rick Hasen, a legislation professor on the College of California, Los Angeles, stated Musk has degraded the positioning in order that it’s only a shadow of what it was in 2020, when it was thought to be a reasonably dependable clearinghouse for info.

“Twitter, or X, has a really completely different public status now. There’s a cause thousands and thousands of individuals left the platform and advertisers left,” Hasen stated. “He’s spreading horrible messages. … The query is will {the marketplace} of concepts work properly sufficient” that folks will acknowledge these messages as untrustworthy, Hasen added.

Musk and plenty of Republicans disagree with that sentiment. They are saying the positioning beneath its earlier possession unfairly censored correct details about COVID-19’s origins and President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden when the information weren’t instantly out there.

Musk makes use of his platform to submit about his firms Tesla and SpaceX, to share his private views that extra individuals have to be having kids, and to make jokes in response to memes and different content material that he finds entertaining. He additionally has more and more used the positioning to amplify unfounded claims from politicians, together with that Democrats are “importing” migrants into the nation to vote and that Haitian migrants in Ohio are killing and consuming pets.

Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s Democratic secretary of state, stated in an interview earlier this month that Musk’s election postings have created a “maelstrom of disinformation” that makes it more durable for individuals who run elections to empower voters with the information.

“I do know the overwhelming majority of election directors simply attempt to maintain their heads down and do the work,” she stated. “The problem is, how will we get details about our work out to residents, lots of whom observe Musk or are members of X, or on the platform?”

Some election officers have tried participating with Musk straight to teach him and his followers. In July, the Republican recorder accountable for elections in Maricopa County, Arizona, which incorporates Phoenix, invited Musk via an X submit to an all-access tour of the county’s election facility.

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat, organized a letter to Musk with 4 different secretaries of state this summer season when Musk’s AI platform, Grok, was posting incorrect details about election guidelines. He stated Musk deserved credit score for belatedly correcting that misinformation.

Simon stated that earlier than Musk purchased Twitter, the platform was useful in correcting election misinformation and that he hopes Musk can do the identical, no matter his private beliefs.

“It’s one factor in the event you don’t like this election system or that election system in Minnesota,” Simon stated, however factually false details about voting must be fastened.

Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company, additionally commented final month on one among Musk’s posts to right a false impression that almost all elections within the U.S. do not use paper ballots. She wrote that over the past presidential election in 2020, “all States w/shut presidential vote counts truly used paper data, permitting votes to be counted, recounted, & audited to make sure accuracy.”

The X proprietor has at instances backtracked when he acknowledges his posts had been ill-advised. Earlier this month, he sparked outrage when one among his posts promoted an interview between the right-wing podcast host Tucker Carlson and a Holocaust revisionist. He then deleted it.

Musk additionally deleted Sunday’s submit musing about how Biden and Harris had not been focused by assassination makes an attempt. White Home spokesperson Andrew Bates nonetheless responded to name the submit “irresponsible” and to say violence “ought to solely be condemned, by no means inspired or joked about.”

Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor of media research on the College of Virginia, stated most celebrities are cautious about their phrases, recognizing that not everybody will perceive their jokes or reply in a measured manner. Musk, he stated, has by no means had that type of filter.

Even so, Vaidhyanathan stated Musk’s affect could be overblown relating to political misinformation. His platform has misplaced cash and advertisers, and he is solely one among many figures who’ve lengthy made false claims about elections.

“Musk is only one extra voice in that cacophony,” he stated.

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Related Press writers Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta, Chris Megerian in Washington and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.

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