Elon Musk's misleading claims about the elections have reached 2 billion views on X.

The richest man in the world has acquired one of the most popular social media platforms, using it as a machine for propaganda and misinformation in support of a presidential candidate. An analysis by a nonprofit organization dedicated to tracking misinformation revealed that Elon Musk made at least 87 claims this year about the elections in the United States on X, which have been rated as false or misleading by fact-checkers. These erroneous posts have garnered over 2 billion views, not only due to Musk's influence but also because he has adjusted X's algorithms to ensure his own messages reach all users of the platform, suggesting that having 203 million followers isn't enough.

According to an initial report that analyzed this data, Musk has contributed over $118 million to a super PAC that supports the reelection of former President Donald Trump, making him the largest donor to Trump's campaign. This PAC has been leading an advertising campaign that mimics the Democrats and targets registered Republicans, promoting unpopular policies not backed by Vice President Kamala Harris's presidential campaign. The ads feature exaggeratedly "woke" messages, such as "Help make our schools as friendly as possible to trans people" or "A nationwide mandatory buyback program means fewer guns and fewer tragedies. Kamala Harris gets it."

A report from 404 Media noted that in recent weeks, the PAC has increased its spending on Facebook ads by 1,000%. Meta waited until the end of last week to ban ads about social issues, elections, or politics. On X, political ads continue to proliferate alongside the messages Musk promotes. Any user of X has witnessed the avalanche of political messages, most of which support Trump and extreme right political narratives. The research found that Musk's political posts have accumulated over 17.1 billion views since his formal endorsement of Trump in July; that’s twice the views of all political ads on the platform during the same period.

Researchers identified a total of 746 posts by Musk made between July 13 and October 25 that mentioned terms related to the elections in the U.S., such as Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, voting, and ballots. Among the misleading claims was one asserting that there had been "three-digit increases of illegals in key states over the last 4 years. Voter importing on an unprecedented scale!" This post reached 21 million views. Another claim stated, "If the great machinery of the Democratic government wins this election, they will ban voter ID nationwide, not just in California." This garnered 11.9 million views. The research revealed that Musk’s allegations about the "importing of voters" by the Democrats were viewed nearly 1.3 billion times, and his claims about unreliable voting systems reached 532 million views.

It should be noted that there is little to no evidence supporting the claims that illegal voters are "imported" to support specific political parties, as electoral fraud is rare in the U.S. due to strict verification measures at both state and federal levels. Experts explain that mail-in ballots are verified when requested and again when returned.

Organizations that criticize Musk, like the mentioned group, have become targets of the billionaire, who has described the organization as a "criminal organization." Musk, who labels himself a defender of free speech, attempted to sue the group last year, but a federal judge dismissed the case, stating that the litigation aimed to "punish" the organization for criticizing X. The group’s CEO stated that X has "become a hell of hate and misinformation" following the removal of many safeguards that protected against false information. Musk has argued that X’s Community Notes feature allows community members to verify the truthfulness of messages, although this function is considered insufficient.

Concerns are further compounded by the proliferation of generative artificial intelligence, which could facilitate the creation and distribution of misinformation at a low cost. According to the CEO, this could lead to a perfect feedback system where AI produces, distributes, and evaluates the effectiveness of misinformation, resulting in a potentially alarming cycle.