The eccentric billionaire made a lot of talk about him in August when he broadcast a two-hour interview with Donald Trump on his platform in front of nearly a million people. The Republican then suggested that Mr. Musk join his administration in the event of victory to lead a “commission on government effectiveness“. And in passing described illegal migrants as “zombies“, among other misleading information. The interview has since appeared on Elon Musk’s direct profile, despite warnings from several political actors, including the European Union, reminding him of his legal obligation not to disseminate false information or of hateful content on X.
This exploitation of the social network could play a decisive role in the results of the November 5 election, which is predicted to be extremely close between the businessman and Democrat Kamala Harris. It once again illustrates the dangers that digital platforms can represent for democracy.
“Europe’s attitude towards Elon Musk and X is becoming laughable”
Censure et fake news
It must be said that Elon Musk has become an expert on the subject. At the beginning of August, the Center for Combating Online Hate (CCDH) identified nearly 50 false or misleading publications published by the Tesla boss on the subject of the elections since the start of the year. In total, these posts have amassed more than 1.2 billion views. Visibility reinforced by the platform’s algorithms, also used to help Donald Trump. New users are in fact inundated with political content and regularly exposed to posts in favor of the Republican candidate as soon as they arrive on the network, according to an analysis of the Wall Street Journal published on October 29.
“X shapes the perception of its users by filtering the information that arrives on their news feed. It is one of the social networks where the distortion between the information defined by our preferences and that received is the strongest“, notes David Chavalarias, mathematician and director of the Institute of Complex Systems in Paris Île-de-France. “It has been demonstrated that users’ news feeds have been enriched by 50% with toxic content since Elon Musk’s takeover, which makes the platform less favorable to debate by creating more hostility“.
Springfield, where they don’t eat dogs or cats, but they work hard
Displayed as “absolutist of freedom of expression”Elon Musk actually exercises censorship of potentially harmful content depicting the former American president. In September, independent journalist Ken Klippenstein was temporarily suspended from the social network after publishing a dossier that the Trump campaign had compiled during the selection of Vance. According to an investigation by New York Timesthe Republican candidate’s team would have contacted the platform which subsequently deleted the potentially damaging information and blocked the link to the file in question on the pretext that this leak was the result of a computer hack. Musk later reinstated Klippenstein’s account, saying he wanted “remain faithful to the principles of freedom of expression“, according to messages seen by the Times. But the file is, for its part, still not accessible from the platform…
Artificial intelligence, a new campaign tool
At the forefront of this technology, the boss of SpaceX has also used artificial intelligence on his social network. Developed by another of its companies (xAI) and accessible since March on the platform, the conversational robot Grok is thus accused of spreading false information about the elections. After Kamala Harris announced that she was replacing Joe Biden as the Democratic Party’s nominee, she falsely informed users that the deadline for casting ballots had already passed in nine states, Pennsylvania and Michigan – two regions that are part of of the Swing States (“Tilting States”, in English) called to play a key role in the election.
“It was easier under Trump”, “he terrifies me”, “they are both failing”…: words of voters in “swing states”
THE deepfakes, these multimedia summaries based on AI were also broadcast on the digital platform in favor of the Republican camp. On July 26, for example, Elon Musk reposted a video using footage from a Kamala Harris campaign clip in which she said she was running because “Joe Biden publicly showed he was senile“and declares that he does not know”nothing to the management of the country“.
However, the publication is contrary to X’s usage regulations, which prohibit “sharing synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that can mislead or confuse people and lead to harm“, except for memes and satire”provided that they do not cause significant confusion as to the authenticity of the media“. Viewed more than 100 million times, the video bearing the logo “Harris for President” has never been reported by Elon Musk to be AI-generated.
Considerable political influence thanks to Trump
This political imprint is worrying, especially since nearly 61% of X users use it to keep up to date with current events, according to a study published by the international agency We are social. If the 619 million American users of the platform are fewer than those of Facebook (around 193 million) or Instagram (around 166 million), the Twittersphere on the other hand has a much greater power of influence. “Musk shaped the distribution of information about explain David Chavalarias. With his millions of subscribers, all he has to do is react to any post for it to go viral.”
Asked whether this control could have an influence on the American elections, “the answer is yes“, continues the researcher. “When we get our hands on a media with such power of influence, which can so profoundly change the perception of reality of its users, we are likely to influence a vote“And this influence will probably not stop after the results of November 5, warns Mr. Chavalarias.”If Kamala Harris becomes the next president, it is certainly on X that the protest will be organized, the platform will become a real war machine and a megaphone for disruptors“, he predicts.
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