Tech billionaire Elon Musk falls for fake news. Tech billionaire Elon Musk has been caught spreading misinformation multiple times on the X platform, falling victim to fake news.
According to Fortune, the most recent instance of Musk falling for fake news was on August 8, when he reposted content "quoted from Telegraph" claiming that UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer was considering building "emergency detention camps" on the Falkland Islands to detain those caught in the current wave of unrest in the country.
Initially, Musk shared the post with a comment "Detention camps..." but deleted it less than an hour later. However, the message still received nearly two million views before disappearing.
The original post was from Ashlea Simon, the leader of the far-right "Britain First" party in the UK. Simon has also deleted the false information.
Elon Musk. Photo: AFP
Elon Musk. Photo: AFP
Musk has recently found himself embroiled in the political crisis in the UK. On August 4, he shared another post about a violent incident resulting in child casualties, with content criticizing "the consequences of mass immigration and open borders." However, it was later determined to be misinformation spread by far-right groups.
In the US, Musk has also faced criticism for posts on X related to the presidential election, often about immigration issues. According to the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), the American billionaire has posted or shared misinformation about 50 times on X. These posts received a total of over 1.2 billion views. Most have been deleted, but some still exist.
"The lack of fact-checking features on X shows that the company is failing miserably in controlling incendiary content, which could lead to real-world violence," Imran Ahmed, head of CCDH, said in a press release earlier this week.
"What Musk is doing is creating a Roman colosseum scenario. He is promoting, amplifying, and personally spreading misinformation," Ahmed told NBC News on August 8.
X and Musk have not commented on the issue.
At the end of July, Musk also shared a deepfake video of Kamala Harris. The video was created by YouTuber Mr. Reagan based on original footage from Harris's campaign, but the audio was replaced with AI-generated voice.
X is currently facing other scrutiny related to the US election. On August 5, 5 federal secretaries said that X had repeatedly shared misinformation about the election without being controlled. CCDH previously conducted an investigation last year, accusing X of contributing to the spread of misinformation from neo-Nazi and extremist groups. Musk's social network has sued CCDH, but was rejected by a federal judge.
The incidents involving Musk highlight the challenges of combating misinformation on social media platforms and raise questions about the responsibility of tech leaders in curbing the spread of false information.
