Civil rights lawyers and Democrats are sounding alarms about Mr. Musk’s claims about voting. The Biden campaign called his posts “profoundly irresponsible.”

In the spring of 2020, when President Donald J. Trump wrote messages on Twitter warning that increased reliance on mail-in ballots would lead to a “rigged election,” the platform ran a corrective, debunking his claims.

“Get the facts about mail-in voting,” a content label read. “Experts say mail-in ballots are very rarely linked to voter fraud,” the hyperlinked article declared.

This month, Elon Musk, who has since bought Twitter and rebranded it X, echoed several of Mr. Trump’s claims about the American voting system, putting forth distorted and false notions that American elections were wide open for fraud and illegal voting by noncitizens.

This time, there were no fact checks. And the X algorithm — under Mr. Musk’s direct control — helped the posts reach large audiences, in some cases drawing many millions of views.

Since taking control of the site, Mr. Musk has dismantled the platform’s system for flagging false election content, arguing it amounted to election interference.

Archive

  • Sodis@feddit.de
    0·
    9 months ago

    There is no full democracy, that can’t be attacked by fascists, if they get elected. There are enough examples for this in the world. Democracy needs the support of the citizens or it will not work. It is not a self-sufficient system.

    • Zevlen@lemmy.world
      0·
      9 months ago

      It’s quite a sufficient system if put into practice. A false democracy is not a democracy. A (full/true) democracy wards off fascism just fine; by allowing the populace to be educated, sofiaticated and informed people. Democracies band together in a time of need too.

      What do You propose over a Democracy?

      • psud@lemmy.world
        0·
        9 months ago

        The word is spelt “sophisticated”

        And yes, a democracy with a sufficiently educated populous is immune to authoritarianism

        That’s probably why the American right attacks education

        • Zevlen@lemmy.world
          0·
          9 months ago

          Sofiticated*… 'Merica!

          American English has a different spelling than the French English, or so I’ve heard.

          • psud@lemmy.world
            0·
            9 months ago

            Wiktionary disagrees with you. It gives only one spelling which is the one I used. Your spelling is correct for the equivalent Italian word