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Musk’s X is ineffective against growing US election disinformation, report says
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Musk’s X is ineffective against growing US election disinformation, report says

:Elon Musk X’s crowd-sourced fact-checking feature, Community Notes, does not counter false claims about the US election, the Center to Combat Digital Hate (CCDH) said in a report on Wednesday.

Of the 283 misleading X posts that CCDH analyzed, 209, or 74 percent of the posts, did not show accurate grades for all X users correcting false and misleading claims about the election, the report said.

“The 209 misleading posts in our sample that did not display the community notes available to all users garnered 2.2 billion views,” CCDH said.

Musk, who endorsed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in July, has been on the campaign trail in recent days spreading false claims about the Nov. 5 U.S. election, including debunked allegations involving undocumented immigrants who are allowed to vote.

Social media platforms, including X, have come under scrutiny for years for spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories, including false information about elections and vaccines.

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, crowdsourcing fact-checking for users rather than a dedicated team of fact-checkers.

Several governments have expressed concern about content on X’s platform, including Australia, the United Kingdom and Brazil. The latter country had banned X for a period earlier this year.

Polls show Trump in a tight race with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. Musk has become one of Trump’s most vocal and biggest financial backers.

X lost a lawsuit filed by the CCDH earlier this year, which blamed him for allowing a rise in hate speech on the social media platform.

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