Elon Musk's Influence on Anti-Immigrant Election Misinformation

The billionaire owner exploits anti-immigrant conspiracies, significantly influencing public perception and engagement on social media.

### The Influence of Misinformation: Musk, Trump, and Anti-Immigrant Conspiracies
* 📊 According to a Bloomberg analysis, a billionaire owner has been promoting **debunked theories regarding undocumented voters influencing the US election**, thereby increasing his sway as the **leading promoter of anti-immigrant conspiracies** on his social media platform, X.
* 🗣 Sarah Frier, editor leading coverage of big tech, highlights that Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric, particularly the notion that **Democrats are "shipping in immigrants to vote,"** has gained traction and is his **most engaged topic** on X.
* 📈 The analysis revealed that Trump’s focus on **immigration-related election fraud** has intensified over the past year, especially after his engagement in Texas, making it a **central theme** in his speeches.
* 🔍 A machine learning model analyzed 1,300 of Musk's posts from 2024, confirming that **non-citizen voting is exceedingly rare** and that the narratives promoted by Musk and Trump **lack factual basis**.
* 🚨 Journalists conducted on-the-ground interviews in Colorado and Pennsylvania, uncovering the **real-life impact of this misinformation** on immigrants and those misled by these narratives.
* 📅 With the election approaching, the consequences of this misinformation are manifesting in the **daily lives of Americans**, emphasizing the **urgency of the issue**.
* 📢 While the Trump campaign defended Musk's statements, it remains notable that Musk often **amplifies misinformation without direct claims**, leveraging his massive following of **over 200 million**.
* 🔎 The investigation uncovered that Musk's posts frequently **evade the fact-checking system**, raising concerns about the **spread of misinformation** on the platform he controls.

According to a large-scale Bloomberg analysis, the billionaire owner has been spreading debunked theories of undocumented voters swaying the US election and growing his influence in the process, making him the biggest promoter of anti-immigrant conspiracies on the social media platform he owns. I want to bring in Bloomberg's Sarah Frier, who's the editor that leads our coverage of big tech. And this was a team effort of journalists and data experts. But I think the best place to start, Sarah, is what's the top line of the story? What is it that we report through that dense body of data? Well, it was really interesting finding, actually, that we have seen us on the campaign trail with Trump talk about these anti-immigrant theories he has. He's been promoting the idea that Democrats are shipping in immigrants to vote for them. So this idea of math, election fraud that he's been talking about on the campaign trail, and, you know, that

seems like sort of a fringe thing until we looked into the data, and it showed that immigration and election fraud and voter fraud is his top policy topic on X. He actually gets more engagement on that topic than anything else that he talks about. And it has become this driver of his speech, something that he talks about ever more frequently over the past year, ever since he visited the border and got more involved in the state of Texas. And he has really become enmeshed with this idea of immigration leading to fraud, and what experts have told us is this narrative in the way that Musk is really laundering it for the masses, is going to help Trump dispute the result of the election should he not win, though. This is a very serious finding, in my opinion, and the findings are serious in the nature in which you got them. You ran a machine learning model, basically on posts, to identify the subjects he was

most often citing and talking about 1300 of Musk posts in 2024 really revolving around this issue. And I just want to get to the facts, therefore, Sarah, of what actually happens, because the facts are that non-citizen voting is incredibly rare. It's incredibly rare. Non-citizens cannot vote for president, but that is not a thing. There is a very difficult path to citizenship in the US. So this idea that he has been talking about is just not based in reality or any history that we know of. And this is something that we didn't just talk about in terms of the data. Our reporters went on the ground to overall Colorado. Julia Leff was in Aurora, Colorado, talking to immigrants who feel like their lives are unsafe now because Musk and Trump have talked publicly about the danger of those immigrants. They went to Butler, Pennsylvania, during a rally where Trump and Musk were

speaking together and talked to a different kind of victim, those who believe the misinformation that they are being told. So, so this is this is something that isn't just happening on the Internet. It isn't just happening on X. It is happening in the daily lives of Americans right now with the election just a few days away. This is data journalism, and the team does a great job in explaining the methodology and also chronology of what happened. But I have to ask, Sarah, if have we heard from Elon Musk or X actually about our reporting and how they feel about it? We haven't heard from Elon Musk, but we did hear from the Trump campaign, and they doubled down. They said you are Musk is not wrong. You know, they repeated some of the misinformation that has endorsed on them. One more thing I'd point out from the data. Often it's not Musk himself saying these things. He will often, quote, tweet or or just

put a little emoji response to something. But with his following that, upwards of 200 million strong, he has incredible influence. He's actually the top influencer on the platform that he owns and has a lot of influence over the algorithm there. We also found that often his posts do not get back-checked on the system that actually used to fact-check. So, very interesting findings here from our data investigation.

Elon Musk's Online Rhetoric on Immigration, Voter Fraud

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Billionaire's Influence on Anti-Immigrant Conspiracies

A Bloomberg analysis reveals that the billionaire owner of a social media platform has been promoting debunked theories of undocumented voters swaying the US election, making him the biggest promoter of anti-immigrant conspiracies.

His posts on immigration and election fraud have garnered the most engagement, driving his speech and becoming a top policy topic.

Experts warn that this narrative could help Trump dispute the election results if he doesn't win.

The Impact of Musk's Posts on Non-Citizen Voting

Musk's posts in 2024 have focused on the issue of non-citizen voting, which is actually very rare in the US.

The idea that non-citizens can vote for president is a misconception, and the path to citizenship is difficult.

The misinformation spread by Musk and Trump has had real-life consequences for immigrants, leading to feelings of insecurity and fear.

The individual in question has a following of over 200 million, giving him significant influence.

He is the top influencer on the platform he owns and has a major impact on its algorithm.

Interestingly, his posts often go unverified by the system that is supposed to fact-check them.