How Elon Musk influenced the spread of misinformation on X

Tesla's billionaire CEO, Elon Musk, has recently been in hot water with multiple parties over the rampant spread of misinformation on his social media platform X (formerly Twitter).  

The platform came into the U.K. government's crosshairs over the spread of misinformation in the wake of the Southport knife attack and subsequent riots - including false claims that Musk spread. 

The riots erupted across the U.K. following a knife attack on July 29 that left three young girls dead in Southport, prompting false claims online that a Muslim asylum seeker committed the attack. More than 1,000 people have been arrested in connection with the riots so far. 

The platform's solution to misinformation has been its community notes feature, which allows users to flag posts containing false or misleading claims and add context in the form of short explainers and relevant links. However, Logically Facts has previously found that the feature is hampered by delays in making notes public and in-fighting among moderators on the backend, meaning that only around 10 percent of community notes are made public. 

Just how involved has Musk been in spreading misinformation on his platform? And as the owner and figurehead of X, can he be held responsible for the spread of false claims on the platform?

Musk has a gigantic online following

The tech billionaire has close to 200 million followers on X. In October 2022, Newsweek reported that since buying the company that month, Musk's followers had increased by 117,000 per day. In 2022, Musk was the third most followed person at 110 million followers, behind Justin Bieber (113.8 million) and Barack Obama (133.5 million), but he has since overtaken them to become the most followed person on the platform. 

Dr. Stephanie Alice Baker is an associate professor of Sociology at City St George's, University of London. Her current research focuses on the role of new media technologies in amplifying false, misleading, and harmful content online. She told Logically Facts that Musk's huge online following and celebrity status contribute to his power to influence others on the platform. 

"His influence is almost cult-like with his entrepreneurial success giving his comments on geopolitical issues a sense of credibility," she explained. "In addition to his impulsive comments on X, he plays a key role in amplifying misleading content."

Musk helped fuel the popularity of #TwoTierKeir

The recent Southport riots demonstrate the power Musk wields on the platform. During the riots, he posted on X that the U.K. was on the brink of civil war and reshared false information about the government sending rioters to "detainment camps" on the Falklands. His comments earned the ire of U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose office issued a statement saying, "There's no justification for comments like that," in response to Musk's civil war predictions. 

Logically Facts dived into Musk's account and found that these were not the only instances of him fueling inflammatory and false information. In particular, he has played a hand in fuelling the "two-tier policing" narrative on X. 

This is a debunked theory spread by far-right actors that argues that U.K. police are lenient on minority groups and immigrants who commit crimes but heavy-handed with white British people. It has emerged in recent years due to the policing failures in handling an Asian grooming gang in Rochdale and false narratives comparing how the police handled Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 and more recent pro-Palestine demonstrations, as opposed to how they've dealt with far-right protests. It has gained traction through influential figures such as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson, who has spread it to thousands of followers on social media. There is no empirical evidence supporting it. 

Yet Musk has posted avidly in support of the narrative. Logically Facts analyzed 12 of his posts related to the U.K. riots and found that they garnered over 352.9 million views in total. The post with the fewest views earned 100,700, while the most viewed earned more than 100 million. 

Evidence suggests that Musk's posts helped amplify the narrative on X. On August 6, Musk first shared the hashtag #TwoTierKeir in a post that has since been viewed over 7.1 million times. This hashtag is a nickname for Starmer and claims he is responsible for a "two-tier policing" system. Logically Facts used social media monitoring tools to collect data on online mentions. This shows that while the use of the hashtag shot up on August 6 from just above 136,000 posts to around 162,000 mentions on X. Other social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit similarly saw a slight bump in mentions of the narrative on August 6. 

Since then, Musk has reshared several posts and memes that claim to "prove" the existence of two-tier policing and heavy-handed approaches to white British people for peacefully protesting. Logically Facts has found instances of Musk uncritically endorsing or resharing posts despite them being flagged by Community Notes for containing false or misleading information. 

On August 11, Musk responded, "No arrests here for actual violence, but others get 3 years for a social media post," to a post claiming, "The fake refugees attack British citizens in their cars, because they know they will face zero consequences." The post included a video of a crowd rioting. However, a community note flagged that the video depicted a 2021 pro-Palestine protest in London where police arrested 13 people for violent public disorder. Despite this, Musk's post has remained live.

Examples of Musk resharing or endorsing posts despite them being flagged by his platform's fact-checking tool for containing false or misleading information. (Source: X)

Logically Facts has also found instances of Musk sharing posts that once had a community note flagging them as misleading, only for the note to be subsequently removed. Musk reshared a meme on August 6 that Logically Facts debunked and was flagged by X's community notes. By August 14, the community note was no longer visible. 

A post reshared by Musk that once had a Community Note flagging it, but the note didn't appear on a later date. (Source: X)

Musk has also independently authored posts supporting the two-tier policing narrative and claims that the U.K. government is becoming increasingly authoritarian. One is a post from August 10 that juxtaposes a still from a porn video about a young white woman who is about to have sex with several Black men above a photo of a white British officer holding a press conference with several Muslim men - implying the scenes are similar. The post had over 100 million views.

Similarly, in another post on August 10, he joked, "It's 2030 in the UK & you're being executed for posting a meme …" This post was viewed more than 69.3 million times. While the post itself was tongue-in-cheek, it affirms other genuine and serious claims he has made about the rise of two-tier policing and authoritarianism in the U.K. The death penalty was formally abolished in the U.K. in 1998. 

X likely profiting off misinformation - CCDH 

The problem goes beyond Musk's personal profile. Research from other organizations has indicated that misinformation, particularly spread by far-right actors, may have helped boost X's revenues. In an investigation by iNews, the outlet found that adverts for The Daily Telegraph, Saudi Arabia, and investment firm eToro have appeared alongside the profiles of prominent actors who have inflamed anti-immigrant sentiment, such as Paul Golding and Andrew Tate. Both had previously been banned from the platform but were reinstated after Musk took over in 2022. 

The Center for Countering Disinformation and Hate (CCDH) found that tens of thousands of accounts were reinstated on X, which included far-right actors, neo-nazis, and those who spread dangerous misinformation. It calculated that just ten of these reinstated accounts, previously banned for spreading dangerous misinformation and hate speech, could generate an estimated $19 million in advertising revenue for the platform in a year. 

In a later report, the CCDH found that X was running ads for well-known companies, including GlaxoSmithKline, the British Medical Association, Betfred, and the International Olympics Committee near posts from five key accounts spreading misinformation and hate in the wake of the Southport knife attacks. This included accounts pushing false claims that the attacks were committed by a Muslim undocumented migrant, many of which have blue ticks that give them a veneer of credibility and result in their posts being boosted by the algorithm. The organization estimated that the accounts may have generated as much as £27,976 per day in ad revenue for the platform. 

In the report, CCDH CEO and founder Imran Ahmed said, "Elon Musk's X played a significant role in these riots, with algorithms turbocharging the spread of lies spread by bad actors he let back onto the platform after the previous owners banned them for spreading hate and lies." 

Little legal recourse currently available 

Professor Lorna Woods is a professor of internet law at the Essex Law School. She told Logically Facts that existing laws allow individuals to be prosecuted for misinformation under two main categories. 

"The first category is whether it is criminal. And the other category is content harmful for children, and that could be, say, we saw a lot of misinformation during the pandemic about cures and drinking bleach," she explained. 

To date, at least 32 people have been arrested following the riots for online offenses such as incitement to violence. Under existing U.K. laws, Musk and his fellow executives may be held criminally liable if any of his posts were found to have fuelled civil disobedience. Former Twitter vice-president for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at Twitter, Bruce Daisley, has called for personal sanctions to be levied against Musk using existing laws. However, since Musk does not live in the U.K., the government would likely lack jurisdiction to prosecute him. 

A second possibility is holding X liable as a company. The Online Safety Act was signed into effect in late 2023 to regulate online platforms and hold them accountable for the spread of misinformation. The act imposes duties of care on social media platforms to "effectively mitigate and manage the risk of the service being used for the commission or facilitation of a priority offense," including the spread of content harmful to children and inciting hate towards protected groups. It gives the regulator Ofcom powers to impose fines and apply to a court for further action to be taken. 

However, the act is currently nonbinding. Woods says that the process of finalizing the Online Safety Act is only about "two-thirds" of the way and will likely only be concluded in 2025. The U.K. government has stated that it will look into toughening up regulations around misinformation in the wake of the Southport riots. Woods says that X's international nature may make enforcing penalties against them difficult as it does not have a U.K.-based subsidiary that could be held accountable for local laws. 

"Some companies will want to comply or see good business reasons for complying with domestic regulation. The problem is when you get companies that just don't care," she told Logically Facts. 

"You are then pushed as a government into looking at more stringent measures that start butting up against that principle of free flow of information, and that is difficult, because you've got a lot of different types of information on X. And so there's a question of throwing the baby out with the bath water."

Other countries have already taken legal action against X. The platform recently ceased operations in Brazil after a legal battle over its inaction in countering rampant misinformation. The European Union also formally charged X for failing to respect EU social media laws by not curbing the spread of misinformation on the platform. If the company is found to have breached EU laws, it may be forced to pay a hefty fine of up to six percent of its global annual turnover and to change how it operates in the region. 

European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton wrote an open letter to Musk on August 12, warning him that "the amplification of harmful content in connection with relevant events … if unaddressed, might increase the risk profile of X and generate detrimental effects on civic discourse and public security." 

Musk has lashed out at Breton and the Brazilian judiciary, indicating that he may be unwilling to regulate misinformation on the platform without further action. 

Baker agrees that tougher action is needed against influential figures who push misinformation. "While those persecuted following the riots have been mainly ordinary citizens, closer attention needs to be paid to influential creators who strategically sow division and discord online," she told Logically Facts.

Logically Facts contacted X for comment and received a response that stated, "Busy now, please check back later."