Tech billionaire, owner of Tesla and X (formerly twitter) Elon Musk has come under fire for reposting a manipulated video of Vice President Kamala Harris intensifying concerns about election-related political disinformation. The video, initially shared by an X account linked to conservative podcaster Chris Kohls and labeled as a "parody," features a voiceover mimicking Harris, making derogatory comments about her, President Joe Biden and her qualifications. The video describes Harris as the "ultimate diversity hire”, suggesting she is unqualified to run for the President. In a separate post, he also slammed Google for slapping a "search ban" on Donald Trump, accusing the platform of "election interference," which the tech platform has called an "anomaly."
Musk’s repost of Harris, accompanied by a caption reading, "This is amazing" along with a laughing emoji, received more than 130 million views. His repost also violates X policy guidelines which prohibit the sharing of "synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm.”. As a response to Musk's repost, Harris’s campaign condemned the billionaire’s actions, emphasising that voters deserve factual information. With nearly 192 million followers, Musk’s influence on X is significant, raising the stakes for the impact of such posts.
Earlier in July, Musk had endorsed Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy after he was shot at a party rally, and has reportedly also pledged $45m per month for the Republican nominee.