"Elon Musk’s misinformation megaphone has created a 'huge problem' for election officials in key battleground states who told CNN they’re struggling to combat the wave of falsehoods coming from the tech billionaire and spreading wildly on his X platform."

William Lindsey :toad:

~ Zachary Cohen, Sean Lyngaas, and Sara Murray

#ElonMusk #Trump #Republicans #disinformation #misinformation
/1

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/31/politics/election-officials-outmatched-elon-musk-misinformation/index.html

William Lindsey :toad:

"Election officials in pivotal battleground states including Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona have all tried – and largely failed – to fact-check Musk in real time. At least one has tried passing along personal notes asking he stop spreading baseless claims likely to mislead voters."

#ElonMusk #Trump #Republicans #disinformation #misinformation
/2

William Lindsey :toad:

"A judge ordered all parties, including Elon Musk, to attend a court hearing in Philadelphia today in a lawsuit seeking to stop a political action committee controlled by the billionaire from awarding $1m to registered US voters in battleground states before the 5 November election."

~ Mattha Busby

#ElonMusk #Trump #Republicans #disinformation #misinformation #ElectionInterference #VoteBuying
/3

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/31/first-thing-harris-hails-first-time-and-gen-z-voters-at-wisconsin-rally

William Lindsey :toad:

As Ken Bensinger and Kaleigh Rogers report, skewed polls and anonymous betting markets are building up Republicans’ expectations for a Trump victory, and the data "could be held up as evidence of cheating if that victory does not come to pass."

#Trump #Republicans #disinformation #misinformation #BigLie
/4

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/31/us/politics/trump-harris-partisan-polls.html

Foucauld Pérotin ❦ ⧖⃝🇺🇦

@wdlindsy The liberal press and politicians, especially in the US, should have left X long ago. It’s a private company, not a public service and they knew Musk’s political agenda, thew knew what happened with Cambridge Analytica on Facebook in 2016. “Yes but it is the general agora” is not a good answer. A radical answer would have been necessary.

Tyler Durden

@wdlindsy
People wanted him to be a real life Tony Stark... the russian nazi lover turned out to be Lex Luthor.

EarthMomma

@wdlindsy

--- skewed polls and anonymous betting markets are building up Republicans’ expectations for a Trump victory,---

All those bets FOR TRUMP raising the odds falsely so that in the end, Trump and his friends vote AGAINST TRUMP and make bank on those odds

Adam

@wdlindsy I can't stop laughing at the video about Nuns accused of voter fraud

William Lindsey :toad:

"In 10 or 20 years, when the dust has settled, we will surely look back at the whole sorry misadventure of online right-wing culture in the 2020s and wonder how and why people at the very top of society—some of America’s richest, most powerful, and most accomplished individuals—transformed themselves into vituperative culture warriors flooding our feeds with content fundamentally divorced from reality."

~ Luke Hallam

#ElonMusk #Trump #MAGA #TechBros #disinformation
/5

https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/elon-musk-the-redpillionaire-trump

Mastodon Migration

@wdlindsy

And we will study how it worked so well. Society has become so effectively balkanized that impenetrable information bubbles exist enabling information "fundamentally divorced from reality" to become accepted as gospel truth. One unreality can be manufactured it can then be employed to achieve the ends of the "vituperative culture warriors." In many ways it is not unlike other epochs in history where potentates prescribed belief systems to concentrate their power.

William Lindsey :toad:

@mastodonmigration You're right: manufacture unreality with lies and propaganda, and it is then used to achieve the ends of vituperative culture warriors. Orwell is so clear on that point -- and we see it over and over again in authoritarian or fascist societies.

Arqtec

@wdlindsy @mastodonmigration

Trump now has openly said Kamala Harris should have guns pointed at her
This is Trump desperate to have the anger and contempt focused on her that he has advocated
Tick tick tick, Nov. 5th comes closer
Donny
Nothing is going to change what is going to happen.....Kamala is Voted in as PRESIDENT
You go to Court, finally get sentenced, 34 felonies are a heavy load....
Bring a whole shit load of diapers, you're gonna be there awhile
tick tick tick, then Jail forever !

William Lindsey :toad:

@adam4h Wasn't that a hoot? And I loved the nuns' response. Those Benedictine sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania, take no guff from anyone.

William Lindsey :toad:

@LaNaehForaday That's correct.

William Lindsey :toad:

@michalz00 Absolutely.

William Lindsey :toad:

@FoucPerotin I agree. I left the day Musk took over. I came to Mastodon a few weeks later. I've wondered, of course, why so many people I respect remain there. It's not a decision I'd be comfortable making.

William Lindsey :toad:

@Arqtec @mastodonmigration I agree.

Patricia

@wdlindsy Where is the FCC and the enforcement against allowing the widespread threats and disruption of a national election? Regarding stochastic terrorism, who acts on those attacks, maybe the @fbi or @DOJ?

William Lindsey :toad:

@indigo8s @fbi @DOJ Good questions.