Elon Musk’s social media platform X has been an important vehicle for spreading countless lies this election season, including fake stories about Haitian immigrants eating pets, AI videos falsely accusing Tim Walz of sexual assault, the idea that the deep state is trying to kill Trump, and allegations that Democrats can control hurricanes, just to name a few. But just about everyone is expecting those disinformation efforts to get even worse on Election Day and beyond, as new reports from NPR and Wired highlight the incredibly unethical work of Musk’s pro-Trump political action committee, America PAC.
As the new reports point out, America PAC recently established a group on X called the Election Integrity Community, which includes a bio that explains that the goal is to, “Share potential incidents of voter fraud or irregularities you see while voting in the 2024 election.” The feed includes an endless stream of conspiracy theories and unverified reports, all with a pro-Trump or anti-Harris slant. And there’s a real concern this torrent of seemingly endless bullshit will have an impact on how the election is perceived online. At the time of writing, the group has more than 50,000 members.
One example of a tweet that’s been shared and amplified by the so-called Election Integrity Community was from an account called MJTruthUltra which alleges someone was “dropping off an obscene amount of ballots” at a location in Pennsylvania. The account tried to suggest there was something suspicious about the video, which has been shared over 7 million times.
UPDATE: 2024 Election
Man Spotted Dropping off an Obscene amount of Ballots at Northampton, PA last minute
The man reportedly has Rhode Island license plate… why Rhode Island Plates in PA? 🤔
Might be a logical explanation.. but see something, say something. It should at… https://t.co/OVY1NK5TtL pic.twitter.com/yZ2rWzLUD4
— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) October 29, 2024
NBC News verified that the video shows a man named Charles Narciso, who’s been with the U.S. Postal Service for 25 years and was bringing ballots into a local election office. It’s not clear who’s behind the account MJTruthUltra but it also shared conspiracy theories about the attempted assassination against Trump back in July, including the idea that the shooter had been brainwashed by the CIA. But whoever’s behind it, the video was helped along by some of the biggest names in the conspiracy theory business, including Alex Jones, who tweeted, “They don’t even try to hide it!”
The point of these videos isn’t necessarily to prove something illegal has happened that would alter the vote in some meaningful way. But if Trump allies can sow enough confusion, perhaps many people will just see this wall of static and noise online and assume there must be something shady happening. How can you doubt that election fraud is happening when so many people are shouting about it on the internet? It can’t all be untrue, can it? As Steve Bannon put it so infamously, they try to “flood the zone with shit.” Bannon was released from prison this week, just in time for the election.
NPR also notes that it appears establishing this community of “fact-checkers” on X is an attempt to lay the groundwork for any future lawsuits challenging the validity of the election results. And it’s already taken as a given that Trump will claim any result in which he didn’t win is rigged. Obviously, he does that on a daily basis and has falsely said that fraud is already occurring in Pennsylvania, a crucial battleground state.
“Pennsylvania is cheating, and getting caught, at large scale levels rarely seen before. REPORT CHEATING TO AUTHORITIES. Law Enforcement must act, NOW!” Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social on Wednesday.
Trump’s wealthy allies are doing everything they can to get him back into office. Musk, a billionaire right-wing extremist, has poured at least $120 million into getting Trump elected, according to the latest reporting from the New York Times. And Musk’s America PAC is giving out $1 million a day to people who sign his “petition” in support of the First and Second Amendments. The caveat is that only people who live in one of seven battleground states are eligible, which has prompted Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner to file a lawsuit against America PAC arguing that it’s running an illegal lottery.
Money aside, Musk has really ramped up his rhetoric over the past six months, echoing the doom and gloom talking points of Trump and insisting this will be the last real election in America if Harris wins. Musk, who told Tucker Carlson he might be thrown in jail if Harris takes the White House, has also suggested that members of Congress who don’t support specific Republican policies should be executed. Musk tweeted back in July about the proposed SAVE Act, a bill introduced by Republicans to put up all kinds of new barriers to voting.
“Those who oppose this are traitors. All Caps: TRAITORS What is the penalty for traitors again?” Musk tweeted with an implication that was clear to all. Traitors have historically been executed.
Those who oppose this are traitors.
All Caps: TRAITORS
What is the penalty for traitors again? https://t.co/lyREyskPv4
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 5, 2024
Meanwhile, Trump is throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. The former president, who has suggested Mark Milley should be executed for treason and Mark Zuckerberg should be tossed in jail, filed a lawsuit Thursday against CBS News for “deceptive doctoring” of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris. Deceptive editing isn’t a criminal offense, of course, but Trump is alleging this amounts to some kind of election interference with the underlying crime being false or deceptive advertising in commerce. It’s absurd, but the goal is to intimidate and harass, not necessarily win.
Musk’s X is going to keep pushing out nonsense conspiracy theories about voter fraud, almost certainly dialing up the baseless allegations right up to Election Day on Nov. 5. The thing nobody knows at this point is what these people do if Trump loses. The former president didn’t accept his loss in 2020 and even tried to stage a coup at the U.S. Capitol to remain in power. There’s no telling what he might do this time, and Musk seems poised to help him however he can.
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