AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Elon Musk once again shared misinformation on the social media platform that he owns, and now users are calling him out for it.
On Monday, Musk posted a video of what was claimed to be people stealing ballot boxes in Venezuela as their presidential election was underway. Musk shared the post with the comment “This is messed up.” The source who originally posted the video took down their post on Twitter/X that contained the video in question, however the original video still exists:
The translated caption read: “URGENT: In Punta Cardón, Falcón state, Venezuela, they report that masked Chavista militiamen raided a local voting station and forcibly took the ballot boxes with the votes to an unknown location. Maduro is committing MASSIVE ELECTORAL FRAUD.”
A community note was posted to correct Musk, who shared the video after Venezuela’s presidential election on Sunday. Both authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro and his opponent Edmundo González declared victory, and according to The Washington Post:
Venezuela’s National Electoral Council, which Maduro controls, claimed
early Monday that he won 51 percent of the vote to opposition candidate Edmundo González’s 44 percent, despite independent exit polling and partial results that suggested González captured twice as many votes as Maduro. On Monday afternoon, Elvis Amoroso, the president of Venezuela’s electoral council, officially declared Maduro president for another six-year term. The official declaration suggests that a possible recount would not change the outcome announced Sunday.
But while Musk declared this supposed “theft” of ballot boxes “messed up,” many were quick to correct him that anyone who speaks Spanish could have told him that the boxes in question were air conditioners.
Musk has shared misinformation about election interference on several occasions, despite it being against Twitter/X’s rules and guidelines.