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Related video: Will Elon Musk's conflicts keep him from serving in Trump's White House?
As Americans – and indeed, people around the world - continue to process the shock return of convicted felon Donald Trump to the White House, the role Elon Musk and Twitter/X played in the US presidential election and the spread of misinformation on the platform remains subject to considerable scrutiny.
Following the Republican candidate’s victory over Democrat Kamala Harris with 312 electoral college votes to the current vice president’s 226 last week, Musk has repeatedly attacked the “legacy media”, praised citizen journalism and declared individuals “are the media now”.
He’s also claimed X is a “real-time source of truth”, despite research from non-profits highlighting the amount of misleading information and false claims being shared on the platform without sufficient fact-checking or corrections.
For example, in August, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) published analysis which found false or misleading claims from Musk about the US election – including claims of the Democrats “importing voters”, posts about voter fraud and AI videos of Harris – had been viewed almost 1.2 billion times on X, with no fact-checking via the crowdsourced Community Notes feature being displayed next to the posts.
Imran Ahmed, the CEO of CCDH, said: “Elon Musk is abusing his privileged position as owner of a small, but politically influential, social media platform to sow disinformation that generates discord and distrust.”
Now, even Grok – Musk’s AI chatbot available to those willing to fork out at least £8 or $8 a month for X Premium – is saying the tech billionaire has “spread information to billions of people” online.
The artificial intelligence, when asked if Musk does indeed do that, states: “Elon Musk has been involved in spreading misinformation on several occasions through his social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), which he owns and where he has a significant following.”
It goes on to break down its answer into five sections – election misinformation, general misinformation, “platform’s role”, public and legal scrutiny, and impact – noting Musk has pushed misleading claims about the US election and “health issues like COVID-19”, and has overseen a shift from “traditional content moderation” to Community Notes which has been “criticized for its effectiveness”.
“In summary, yes, Elon Musk has been identified as a significant spreader of misinformation, particularly noted for his impact on elections and broader societal issues, through his activities on X. However, it’s important to consider the context and the broader environment where misinformation thrives, including the algorithms of social media platforms that can amplify such content,” it concludes.
Twitter/X users have since delighted in the irony:
Awkward.
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