In the spring of 2020, when President Donald J. Trump wrote messages on Twitter warning that increased reliance on mail-in ballots would lead to a “rigged election,” the platform ran a corrective, debunking his claims.

“Get the facts about mail-in voting,” a content label read. “Experts say mail-in ballots are very rarely linked to voter fraud,” the hyperlinked article declared.

This month, Elon Musk, who has since bought Twitter and rebranded it X, echoed several of Mr. Trump’s claims about the American voting system, putting forth distorted and false notions that American elections were wide open for fraud and illegal voting by noncitizens.

This time, there were no fact checks. And the X algorithm — under Mr. Musk’s direct control — helped the posts reach large audiences, in some cases drawing many millions of views.

Since taking control of the site, Mr. Musk has dismantled the platform’s system for flagging false election content, arguing it amounted to election interference.

Archive

  • Shake747@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    10 months ago

    There’s still the open version of fact checking: community notes

    What are the facts about this? That it doesn’t happen…that often?

    There’s no real time enforcement for it to mean anything. The votes are tallied in real time, and a winner is announced, then months to years later people (who are caught) are prosecuted?

    Can someone point out why mail in voting with no ID is a good thing? I’m genuinely curious

    • Nero@sopuli.xyz
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      10 months ago

      Oh wow, your comment history is almost entirely defending Elon Musk. That must be exhausting.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Can someone point out why mail in voting with no ID is a good thing?

      1. You did not need an ID to vote for almost the entire history of the U.S. and no one had a problem with that.

      2. Oregon has been entirely vote by mail since 1998. A voter ID is not required. There have been no significant issues.

      So you point out why mail-in voting with no ID is a bad thing. Because it has been demonstrated to work without problems.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          This person thinks that somehow non-citizens can register to vote. Been listening to too many Trump speeches, I guess.

      • Shake747@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        10 months ago

        Because we’ve all seen how fraudulent people can be right?

        This is minor, but take a video game for example - even with nothing to gain, lots of systems have to be put in place because people go out of their way to game the systems and cheat.

        Why would something with actual consequences be any different? Why wouldn’t you have even the simplest system in the way of that?

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Please present evidence of this fraud. You should be able to easily show it happening in Oregon. You have over 25 years’ worth of elections to find evidence for.

          • Shake747@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            10 months ago

            I’m asking why you don’t want to protect your system and all you have to offer is “well it’s worked gud for 20+ years!”

            You sound like a conservative

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              “It’s worked without any problems for 25 years” is not good enough? Why? How many more years does it need to work without any fraud for you to accept that it is not an issue? 40 years? 80 years? 150 years?

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                  10 months ago

                  So there’s no evidence of fraud, there’s no indication of fraud, there’s no mechanism for fraud because of the way it is done, but you want it to be scrapped because maybe possibly fraud?

                  That makes absolutely no sense.

                  • Shake747@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                    10 months ago

                    I’ve never been in a car accident, but I still have insurance and put on a seatbelt. Precautions, ya know?

                    By your election logic, I’ve been good for 20+ years and shouldn’t need either of those

                • CanadianCorhen@lemmy.ca
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                  10 months ago

                  “here’s a road, there have been no accidents on it for 25 years. I’m saying, without proof, that its icy and we need to rip the road out. not to rebuild it, not fix it by spreading sand or salt, just tear it out.”

                  • Shake747@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                    10 months ago

                    Asking for ID during an election is the “putting salt/rocks” on the road.

                    It’s not the equivalent of ripping out the entire road

        • meco03211@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Along with Flying Squid’s request, can you show examples of voter fraud that would have changed an outcome? Or maybe what impact each case has? One person trying to vote twice in the same election at best might affect a local small race.

        • AnonTwo@kbin.social
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          10 months ago

          The numbers are actually pretty small, and ironically the group claiming there are voting issues (republicans) are the ones primarily getting caught doing it.

          You’re arguing based on a scenario that has historically never happened on a level where it has had an effect on any election, past present or even recent.

          To be fair, I don’t think there’s harm in there being a voter ID, but there’s no evidence of there being an issue for it not being there either. The biggest issue would likely be it would take time, and the world has to keep moving.

    • oxjox@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      If you’re still “genuinely curious” about the voter ID issue that has been discussed to death for nearly five years, please do yourself a favor and stay away from any political discussions.