Elon Musk’s Online ‘Election Integrity’ Community Quickly Flooded With Accusations of Fraud

A new online message board set up by billionaire Elon Musk’s “America PAC,” which is spending millions of dollars to help elect President Trump, is already rife with baseless accusations of fraud from prominent online accounts. The message board — known as a “community” on Mr. Musk’s X — already has more than 12,000 members just 48 hours after its creation.“Safe and Secure Elections are essential to having a functioning Republic,” America PAC said in a statement posted to X about the new message board. “We have started an X Community dedicated to sharing potential instances of voter fraud and irregularities that Americans are experiencing in the 2024 Election. Share what you see while voting here.”It is a stark departure from the anti-misinformation and anti-disinformation guardrails the social media site put in place four years ago, back when it was known as Twitter. Before Mr. Musk took the company private in 2022, a team of fact-checkers were tasked with combating lies about the 2020 election, leading to allegations of censorship from Republicans and conservative activists whose posts were being hit with warning labels about their misleading nature. Trump famously had many of his tweets about how he had actually won the election labeled as misleading. The X community is already fanning the flames around fears of cheating in the election this year, with several users posting misleading or outright false photos, videos, and documents that have already been going viral. In one post that was sent on Monday, an X user named Josh Dunlap posted a video from NBC10 Boston, a local NBC affiliate in Massachusetts. The clip was of a local reporter detailing the story of a Lawrence, Massachusetts man who had gone to vote in person, but was turned away because he was told he had already cast his ballot. Despite the clear attempt to make it seem as if election officials were trying to cheat in the current election, the video was disclosed to have been from 2023, when a city council candidate and another woman were arrested for casting fraudulent ballots and trying to intimidate voters. They are both awaiting trial. Another video that is particularly popular on Mr. Musk’s election integrity message board is a video of an election machine at Tarrant County, Texas. The person who posted the video claims it shows Tarrant County’s digital voting booths “switching” votes from one candidate to another, though the county has assured the public that no such thing is happening. Tarrant County residents cast their ballots by selecting candidates on a computer screen and then printing the ballot, which will then be submitted to vote counters. The county says that only one man so far has complained about his printed ballot not showing the same result as what he selected on the screen.“In one reported instance, a voter reviewed their printed ballot and found it did not correctly reflect his choice for President. The original ballot was spoiled, and the voter re-marked a new ballot with his preferred choice reflected,” county election officials said in a press release on Tuesday, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “Tarrant County Elections has no reason to believe that votes are being switched by the voting system.”The county’s assurances that no malfeasance is being committed seem to have little impact on those who are dedicated to Mr. Musk’s “election integrity community.” The video that claims to show vote switching in the county already has more than 115,000 likes. Another user named Daniel wrote in the X community that all users should watch the movie “2,000 Mules,” a 2022 film that makes sensational claims about how Democrats and activists stole mail-in ballots to rig the 2020 election. In 2024, the distributor of the film, Salem Media Group, pulled the movie from distribution after it was sued by an Atlanta man who was accused by the film’s producers of being a so-called “mule” who “harvested” ballots. The media company apologized to the man and disavowed the film after they paid him a “significant” amount in a settlement. A number of other individuals who were featured in the film without their consent are also suing the company.

Elon Musk’s Online ‘Election Integrity’ Community Quickly Flooded With Accusations of Fraud

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