Conspiracy theory spreading: Social media say Musk's Starlink interfered with 2024 election

 

2024 U.S. ELECTIONS RAPID RESEARCH BLOG RAPID RESEARCH NOTE

(Source: University of Washington)

This is part of an ongoing series of rapid research blog posts and rapid research analysis about the 2024 U.S. elections from the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public. 

This research memo identifies election rumors using a combination of qualitative, quantitative, digital ethnographic, and visual, methodologies. It was cross-posted on the CIP’s election rumor research Substack newsletter.

Since Trump won the presidential election, rumors and audience attention have focused on interpreting the results. A new rumor has emerged on the left as part of this collective sense making process. 

Social media users speculated that Starlink, a satellite-based Internet provider owned by Elon Musk, was used to alter election results in Trump’s favor. 

Note: Fact-checks by PolitiFact and AFP have debunked these claims. 

The rhetoric and tropes of this rumor have the hallmarks of a conspiracy theory, which academics typically define as an explanation for social or political events that suggests without verifiable evidence that perceived ill-intentioned actors are secretly plotting to alter social, political, and economic institutions to their benefit — such as elections. 

In this research note, we analyze the spread of this conspiracy theory on X and its rumoring dynamics within left-leaning audiences on the platform.

Left-leaning accounts with relatively small followings (ranging from 10k to 200k) have driven the conversation about this conspiracy theory on X, especially in its early stages on November 9 and 10. 

Most engagement on X comes from tweets posted by these accounts over these two days. 

On November 11, tweets rumoring about this conspiracy theory continued, but got fewer retweets. At the same time, several right-leaning accounts joined the conversation, mainly to mock left-leaning speculation and dismiss the rumor as a conspiracy theory.

Analyzing the spread of the conspiracy theory:  The crux of the theory postulates that Starlink was used to alter vote counts in Trump’s favor. They speculate, without evidence, that tabulators that are used to count paper ballots, were tampered with via an internet connection: namely Musk’s Starlink internet provider.

It is important to note that most machines used in U.S. elections are not connected to the Internet. 

My 2 Cents: Maybe a deep dive is now required in light of of the Musk DOGE shenanigans. Just a thought.