Billionaire Elon Musk is primarily known as the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, but he’s now much more than that. For example, he’s increasingly using his financial power to interfere in world politics.

Earlier this year, Musk confirmed that Ukraine could use Starlink satellites to defend itself against Russia. Ukrainian President Zelensky was very grateful for the assistance. But the joy was short-lived, as the Tesla founder quickly indicated that he regretted expressing support. Musk withdrew, and his decision had a direct impact on the effectiveness of the military.

erratic behavior musk

In his home country, the United States, Musk’s erratic behavior is also well known. He voted for President Biden in 2020, but research by the Wall Street Journal shows that Musk has recently donated $45 million a month to Trump’s campaign multiple times. On his X platform, he publicly declared his support for the presidential candidate in July, after the attacks on Trump.

“He has strong political views and he’s a Trump fan,” social media expert Joey Schoeffler notes. “That’s not a problem at all, that’s fine. But his voice is louder and bigger than everyone else’s. He forgets that every now and then.”

“reduces its impact”

“Or not,” Schoeffler continues. “But at least he’s downplaying it.” Musk’s presence on X and other social media isn’t necessarily dangerous, but it should be watched closely, he says. That’s mainly because Musk often denies his cultural and political influence.

“He’s actually acting like a normal person,” Schoeffler said. “Sometimes offensive tweets from regular users are removed, while tweets from Musk with similar content are not removed from the platform.”

2024 Presidential Election

As the owner of X, Elon Musk certainly has a big finger in politics. Is that enough to determine the future president of the United States? According to Schoeffler, that goes too far. “But he can certainly show more positive aspects of Trump (on his show, ed.)”

“And Harris, he can show less of that,” he continues. “And Elon Musk has control over that, because it’s his platform. He’s not just an influencer or an opinion maker with an opinion.”

misinformation

Schoeffler believes this could be a big problem. The information Musk shares isn’t always accurate, and sometimes it’s misleading. Since January, the X50 owner has tweeted 50 misleading and false information to his nearly 194 million followers. Those tweets have been read 1.2 billion times, according to NBC News.

“It’s very bad. There’s so much misinformation and disinformation on social media now,” says Schoeffler. “Independent, reliable information is in the minority. That balance needs to be restored so that users can form their own opinions, not just based on one-sided information from an influential person, but also from a trusted news organization.”

More attention to social media

The social media expert believes that the balance can be restored by highlighting more independent and reliable information, and in a more interesting way, on social media. According to him, this is not being done enough. “You see a lot of news brands using TikTok and Instagram, but they are actually only producing three or four videos a day.”

But that’s not enough to compete with Musk and all the other “spreaders of misinformation,” says Schoeffler. “Recent research by the Dutch Media Authority shows that social media is the main source of news for 30 percent of people in the Netherlands. I think that’s already a large number, and it’s not going to decrease.”