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NRI Latest News: Nearly two years ago billionaire Elon Musk took over Twitter and rebranded it as X, he is using its muscle as a real-time news source for millions of users in a bid to influence the outcome of the 2024 presidential election in favor of former President Donald Trump.
Musk has already been very loud and very clear in the political arena for months. He has advanced racist conspiracy theories about the immigration policies of the Biden administration, obsessed over the “woke mind virus”—a term some conservatives use to describe progressive causes—and warned of impending “doom” for the country should a “red wave” not materialize in November.
But now Musk, who is not only X’s owner but also its most followed user, has pivoted to more explicit campaigning for former President Donald Trump—very uncharacteristic of one of the world’s richest men and the CEO of a major social network.
Social media platforms have been involved in previous elections: campaigns lean on them to build out support, foreign actors have utilised them in efforts to interfere in election outcomes, and the industry was criticised in 2020 for restricting access to reports about Hunter Biden’s laptop. Some tech leaders have also stated preferences about who they want in the White House. But the major platforms themselves, and especially their owners, typically do not try to affect how users will vote, save for ensuring people have basic, accurate information about voting and removing influence operations that seek to covertly manipulate people.
Musk, on the other hand, has merely used the $44 billion platform he bought as a personal and political megaphone, pushing his views to over 190 million followers—amplifying, at times, false claims from the very top.
Musk announced his official endorsement for Trump in a post last month that got 2.3 million likes. On Monday, he hosted Trump for a friendly, 2-plus-hour livestreamed conversation on X, in which he allowed the former president to make at least 20 false claims about everything from crime and immigration to tax cuts without pushback.
Trump used the conversation to fundraise, with his campaign team posting on X ahead of the event that “we’re asking YOU to make this President Trump’s BIGGEST FUNDRAISING DAY EVER!” X used the opportunity to send a notification, which featured Trump’s profile photo, to users, encouraging them to buy a subscription to the platform.
“I spent 2 1/2 hours last night talking to Elon, a fantastic guy, getting all-time record views and hits, and all the Fake News wants to report is that the servers crashed (because of the tremendous volume!) and the show opened a little late. What they should be reporting was the incredible number of people that were listening. I absolutely hate the fake news media. So bad for our country!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Tuesday.
