“Game, set and match. » From dawn this Wednesday, November 6, while the first results of the American presidential election indicated a victory for Donald Trump, Elon Musk did not hide his joy on his social network X (formerly Twitter). For the South African billionaire, it is the accomplishment of a long campaign in favor of the Republican candidate, financially supported to the tune of nearly 120 million euros, but also skillfully orchestrated on his platform purchased in October 2022. “In two years, Elon Musk has prepared the ground for Trump in two ways, explains Romain Badouard, researcher in information and communication sciences and lecturer at the University of Paris-Panthéon-Assas. It has both repatriated to »
Not content with having rehabilitated the American conspiracy sphere on his social network, Elon Musk also chose to adopt the rhetoric of the stolen election in 2020. Thus, on October 30, the billionaire relayed a video suggesting that Dominion, supplier of voting machines, is reportedly experiencing technical problems. “What’s going on Dominion?” “, he then published, suggesting potential fraud without stating it clearly in order to avoid any defamation lawsuit. Another fake news that Elon Musk has heralded is that the Democratic Party is transporting “illegal” migrants to swing states, with the aim of having them obtain American citizenship and vote for them.
Privileged discussion spaces granted to the magasphere
A real bludgeoning, accelerated from a month before the election date, was thus put in place on its platform. During the month of October alone, no less than 3,000 posts were published by the billionaire, assures the New York Times. “We are talking about a man enjoying phenomenal visibility, the most followed account on the platform with 202 million subscribers, who in addition to this audience may have benefited from algorithmic bonuses, recalls Tristan Mendès France, associate lecturer at Paris Cité University, collaborator with the Conspiracy Observatory. Musk's added value is to have taken a whole part of his rather fanatic community of his technological innovations to the magasphere, by tweeting at the same time as boss of X, entrepreneur of Tesla and political activist of Trump. »
The tool « space » also made it possible to give a voice to a certain number of figures in the American complosphere, favorable to the Republican camp. Thanks to this feature allowing live audio conversations on 4 million followers), follower of vague scientific theories and covid-sceptic… As well as Donald Trump himself. According to Elon Musk, this “space” shared with the Republican candidate has been viewed a billion times.
Ideological shift
While Donald Trump has already said he wants to appoint Elon Musk to head a government commission responsible for an audit of the American public service, the American conspiracy sphere is exulting. “It is quite surprising to see such an ideological shift, from a man who, at the time of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, advocated better regulation of social networks and the implementation of additional means to combat disinformation,” notes Romain Badouard, in reference to this company accused of having massively exploited the data of millions of American citizens during Donald Trump's campaign in 2016. “Musk assumes that he will turn around and put his platform at the service of an ultraliberal billionaire, he deciphers again. This is a situation symptomatic of the evolution of the world of Silicon Valley: when money comes into play, political ideals take a back seat. »
And in fact, the strategy more than pays off financially: “I love you Elon,” declared Donald Trump at the start of his victory speech, not counting his sweet words towards his loyal campaign support. In the morning, Tesla group shares jumped 13% in pre-session trading.
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