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About two years after Elon Musk bought Twitter and transformed it into X, the billionaire is using its capacity as a source of real-time news for millions of users to try to impact the 2024 presidential election in favor of former President Donald Trump.
Musk has spoken out politically for months. He has promoted racial conspiracy theories about the Biden administration’s immigration policy, focused on the conservative term “woke mind virus” to represent progressive causes, and predicted “doom” if a “red wave” fails in November.
Musk, the owner and most followed user on X, is now directly advocating for former President Donald Trump. It’s unusual for the world’s richest man and chief of a major social network.
Campaigns have utilized social media to boost support, foreign players have used it to influence election outcomes, and the sector was condemned in 2020 for suppressing Hunter Biden laptop reports. Some tech leaders have listed their presidential preferences. The major platforms, and notably their owners, rarely try to influence users’ votes, except to provide basic, accurate voting information and remove influence operations that try to secretly sway individuals.
Musk, who bought the platform for $44 billion, has used it to influence his more than 190 million followers and make misleading statements from the top.
Musk’s announcement of his Trump endorsement last month garnered 2.3 million likes. On Monday, he invited Trump for a convivial, 2-plus-hour livestreamed talk on X, allowing the former president to spew at least 20 bogus assertions about crime, immigration, and tax cuts without comment.
Before the event, Trump’s campaign staff posted on X that “we’re asking YOU to make this President Trump’s BIGGEST FUNDRAISING DAY EVER!” X sent users a notification with Trump’s profile photo to encourage platform subscriptions.
I spent 2 1/2 hours last night talking to Elon, a great guy, getting record Views/hits, and all the Fake News wants to report is that the servers crashed and the show opened late. They should have reported the huge audience. I hate fake news. How sad for our nation! Trump posted on Truth Social Tuesday.
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