Musk's X ineffective against surge of US election misinformation, report says


FILE PHOTO: Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk, who supports Republican presidential nominee former U.S. President Donald Trump, gestures as he speaks about voting during an America PAC Town Hall in Folsom, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 17, 2024. REUTERS/Rachel Wisniewski/File Photo

(Reuters) - The crowd-sourced fact-checking feature of Elon Musk's X, Community Notes, is "failing to counter false" claims about the U.S. election, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) said in a report on Wednesday.

Out of the 283 misleading posts that CCDH has analyzed, 209 or 74% of the posts did not show accurate notes to all X users correcting false and misleading claims about the elections, the report said.

"The 209 misleading posts in our sample that did not display available Community Notes to all users have amassed 2.2 billion views," CCDH said, urging the company to invest in safety and transparency.

X did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

X launched its "Community Notes" feature last year, which allows users to comment on posts to flag false or misleading content, in effect crowd-sourcing fact checking to users rather than a dedicated team of fact checkers.

The report comes after X lost a lawsuit brought by CCDH earlier this year that faulted it for allowing a rise in hate speech on the social media platform.

Social media platforms, including X, have been under scrutiny for years over the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories, including false information about elections and vaccines.

Secretaries of state from five U.S. states urged billionaire Musk in August to fix X's AI chatbot, saying it had spread misinformation related to the Nov. 5 election.

Musk, who endorsed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in July, himself has been accused of spreading misinformation. Polls show Trump is in a tight race with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. This story has been corrected to say that the secretaries of state urged Musk to fix the chatbot in August and not last month, and that Musk endorsed Trump for U.S. president in July, not last month, in paragraphs 8 and 9 respectively)

(Reporting by Devika Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Michael Perry)

Follow us on our official WhatsApp channel for breaking news alerts and key updates!

   

Next In Tech News

Microsoft and Meta shares fall in Frankfurt despite earnings beat
Panasonic's battery unit Q2 operating profit rises 42%
STMicroelectronics trims 2024 revenue outlook again
Toyota, NTT to invest $3.3 billion on development of AI platform
Australia sues Optus for 'misconduct' in phone sales to vulnerable customers
Nightmare fuel: We asked researchers to name the scariest thing you should worry about
Meta, Microsoft lift AI spending, worrying Wall Street ahead of Amazon results
US election deniers use Telegram to rally poll watchers in swing states
Cognizant beats quarterly profit estimates on gradual recovery in IT services demand
Samsung says it is making headway in AI chip supply after disappointing results

Others Also Read