Fact check: Elon Musk spreads US election lies

The way the world's richest man, Elon Musk, is getting involved in US politics shows how billionaires with control over social media can influence public opinion and potentially sway elections.

"Since Elon Musk took over X, the platform has devolved into a hellscape of hate and disinformation — much of which comes from Mr. Musk himself," Imran Ahmed, head of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), told DW.

Unlike most tech billionaires and political donors, Musk's political involvement is highly visible and has intensified ahead of the US presidential election on November 5. A recent CCDH report found that Musk's false or misleading claims about the US election got 1.2 billion views between January and July 2024 on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), which he owns.

Musk's role as a source of mis- and disinformation extends beyond his own posts. He frequently retweets or engages with false and misleading claims and conspiracy theories, and his engagement gives these posts an immense reach.

DW Fact check analyzed three examples of how Musk is spreading false claims ahead of the US election.

1: False narratives about migrants voting

Claim: In July, US Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested Democrats "want to turn illegal aliens into voters." Musk retweeted this claim, adding that "the goal all along has been to import as many illegal voters as possible," implying that immigrants are being brought into the country to support Democrats. The post has received more than 45 million views.

DW Fact check: False

Only US citizens can vote in US federal elections. "Noncitizens, including permanent legal residents, cannot vote in federal, state and most local elections," a statement on USA.gov, an official US government website, explains. Federal law strictly prohibits noncitizens from voting in US presidential elections. 

Musk has also stated it takes, "less than five minutes and zero documentation" with the help of an app to be approved as an illegal immigrant and flown to the US at American taxpayers' expense. Musk reposted a video that alleged that by using the CBP One app, an unlimited number of foreigners could enter the US. The app was developedby US Customs and Border Protection agency and is used to schedule appointments for asylum processing. However, simply registering in the app does not guarantee entry into the US.

Still, Musk's post was viewed nearly 20 million times and was shared tens of thousands of times.

2: Posting fake pictures of Kamala Harris

Claim: In early September, Musk posted an image showing Democratic candidate Kamala Harris dressed in a red Communist outfit with a hammer and sickle on her hat, with the caption: "Kamala vows to be a communist dictator on day one. Can you believe she wears that outfit!?" This post quickly went viral, reaching more than 80 million views.

DW Fact check: Fake.

This is not a real image of Harris. The photo was generated by artificial intelligence, as revealed by the sharpness of Harris' image against a blurred background and the unusually bright colors. An advanced AI image detector tool like truemedia.org finds "substantial evidence of manipulation."

Sander van der Linden, a professor at the University of Cambridge in the UK and author of "Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity" told DW that misinformation erodes the quality of democratic discourse, lowers trust in the electoral process and outcome "and for some people can even change the way they vote."

With a net worth over $263 billion (€242 billion) as of November, according to Forbes, Musk is the world's wealthiest person, making him a unique influencer.

He has over 200 million followers on X and has reportedly manipulated its algorithm to give his tweets a boost over anyone else on the platform.  

Since acquiring Twitter two years ago and rebranding it as X, Musk has done things like reinstate the account of former President Donald Trump, which was suspended following Trump's controversial posts after the last presidential election in 2020, which he lost. Trump has more than 92 million followers on X, and less than 8 million on his own social media platform Truth Social.

3: Questioning the electoral process

Musk has amplified claims that there is something wrong with voter rolls in Michigan, an important swing state. The original claim — that Michigan has more voters than residents eligible to vote — has been debunked by Michigan's Election Fact Center.

Claim: Musk doubled down in mid-October and accused Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson of dishonesty, writing, "you only plan to remove the ineligible voters AFTER the election. That necessarily means that there are far more people registered to vote than there are eligible voters."

DW Fact check: Misleading.

Under state and federal law in the US, voters are only removed from voter rolls after they have been sent a notice that their registration is subject to cancellation and two subsequent federal election cycles have passed without any response or voting activity.

"Michigan has done more in last five years to improve the accuracy of our voter rolls than in the previous two decades," the state says on its election information website. "Since 2019, election officials have cancelled more than 800,000 voter registrations and identified more than 600,000 slated for cancellation in 2025 and 2027 once the legally required two-federal election cycle period has passed."

What motivates Musk?

Musk and Trump have a complex relationship. During Trump's 2016 campaign, Musk publicly questionedTrump's fitness for office. Trump then later appointedMusk to his advisory council, a role Musk eventually leftdue to policy disagreements.

Van der Linden, at the University of Cambridge, thinks Musk believes a Trump victory would be in the best interests of his business. It might include "potentially more contracts from NASA for SpaceX, more federal contracts for Starlink, and free range to run X however he wants without government oversight of social media companies," he said.

Michael Schlegel of BR24 #Faktenfuchs contributed to this piece. This article is part of a collaboration between Germany's public broadcasting fact checking teams ARD-Faktenfinder, BR24 #Faktenfuchs and DW Fact check on the US elections 2024.

Edited by: Joscha Weber, Sarah Steffen