With voting centers closed in the United States and the results of the presidential election arriving, tech billionaire Elon Musk posted a wave of tweets on his social media platform X (formerly Twitter). So did Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
At first glance, these tweets may seem chaotic and random. But if you look closely, you begin to see a troubling strategy behind it – one that is worth paying very close attention to in order to understand the inner workings of the campaign to return Trump to the White House.
The strategy has two immediate goals. First, to overwhelm the information space and thus manage attention. Second, to advance the conspiracy theory that there is a coordinated campaign between Democrats, the media, and Big Tech to steal this election.
But it is important to understand that the strategy regarding of widespread voter fraud.
Overwhelm the information space
Musk has long been a prominent user of X, even before he became the owner, CTO, and CEO of the platform.
But as I reported last week, since he endorsed Trump in July, engagement with his account has seen a sudden and unusually large increase, raising doubts about whether he tweaked the platform’s algorithms so his content would reach more people.
This trend has continued in recent days.
In addition to posting on X, Musk also held a podcast earlier in the day Live, “free-form” discussion. On the podium about the elections. It lasted about an hour and a half. About 1.3 million people have tuned in to the many live chats he’s hosted about the election over the past months, including in particular. With Trump.
In information warfare, it’s all about attention management. The platforms are designed to maximize user engagement and interest beyond anything else. This basic logic of social media is highly exploitable: whoever controls attention controls the narrative. In Australia, the “Vote No” campaign during last year’s referendum on Indigenous representation in government was a masterclass in attention management.
By bombarding audiences, journalists, and other key stakeholders with a constant supply of allegations, rumours, conspiracy theories, and unverifiable claims, Musk and the Trump campaign are sucking up all the oxygen of attention. When everyone is focused on you and what you are saying, they are distracted by what the other party is saying.
Musk and Trump want people to focus on the idea that the election was stolen.
Evan Vucci/AP
Feeding the narrative of election fraud
Since the beginning of the year, the narrative that the US presidential election is at risk of fraud has steadily gained strength. But in the last week leading up to Election Day, it’s gone downhill.
For example, starting on October 27, Trump began posting on X using the hashtag #TooBigtoRig. This refers to the idea that Trump will win the election by such a large margin that the outcome will become indisputable. Up to this point, the #TooBigToRig campaign has been led by Trump supporters. Now Trump has officially joined – giving him absolute legitimacy.
There has also been a significant rise over the past week in posts using similarly themed hashtags such as #ElectionFraud, #ElectionInterference, #VoterFraud and #StopTheSteal.
Musk himself hasn’t been using these hashtags very often (although responses to him from other users are full of them). But he was publishing material that resonated with them. For example, earlier in the day He retweeted a post Which claimed that the electronic voting system in the United States is not secure. “Absolutely,” Musk added.
He has too He falsely accused Google of encouraging Americans To vote for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
As some early results begin to emerge, Musk has been spread About Trump’s odds of winning at nearly 70%.
“The prophecy has come true,” Musk wrote.
Participatory disinformation
In many ways, this has all the hallmarks Participatory disinformation. This concept, developed by computer scientist Kate Starbird and colleagues, explains how both ordinary people as well as politicians and influential actors become active participants in spreading false narratives.
In contrast to the top-down propaganda model, participatory disinformation describes how grassroots activists and ordinary people – often with strong convictions and sincere intentions – contribute to the spread and development of narratives that are not grounded in facts. It is a collaborative feedback loop that involves elite formulation of issues, collective understanding, and collection of “evidence.”
Before war breaks out, there are clear signs of what is about to unfold, even if a country publicly denies that it is preparing for battle. blood supplyTroops and weapons They are taken to the border In preparation for the invasion.
The same thing happens here, except the weapon is us.
The deluge of tweets by Musk and Trump, in particular, sets the stage for a full-blown participatory disinformation campaign to undermine the election results.
