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By Ali Swenson | Associated Press
In an interview this week, Twitter owner Elon Musk said users making false claims of stolen elections “will be corrected” on the platform.
Prompted by a CNBC reporter for extra assurance that would happen, Musk responded, “Oh yeah, 100%.”
Yet many such claims have thrived on Twitter in the week since former President Donald Trump spent much of a CNN town hall digging in on his lie that the 2020 election was “rigged” against him. Twitter posts that amplified those false claims have thousands of shares with no visible enforcement, a review of posts on the platform shows.
The contrast between Musk’s promise and the extent the claims are spreading on Twitter underscores a major challenge for social media companies trying to call out election conspiracy theories and falsehoods that Trump and his supporters continue to promote. That will only grow as the nation prepares for a presidential election next year in which Trump is again vying to be the Republican nominee.
It’s unclear whether Musk and his newly hired chief executive, Linda Yaccarino, are planning any changes to Twitter to crack down on the misinformation, which election experts and tech accountability advocates say heightens risks to election officials and erodes trust in democracy.
“Talk is cheap,” said David Becker, a former U.S. Justice Department lawyer who now leads the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research. “It’s good that he acknowledges that it’s important for Twitter to act responsibly. … But then we have to see this action actually taken, because it’s happening right now.”
An analysis by the media intelligence firm Zignal Labs on behalf of The Associated Press surfaced the 10 most widely shared tweets promoting a “rigged election” narrative in the five days following Trump’s town hall.
While Twitter has a system in place for users to add context to misleading tweets, the 10 posts, which collectively amassed more than 43,000 retweets, had no such notes attached.
The most widely shared tweets included false claims from U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
