Elon Musk joined a chorus of conservative social media accounts boosting claims Google was providing users with information on how to vote for Kamala Harris but not her rival.
The tech billionaire reposted a tweet from the account of a graphic designer called DogeDesigner, claiming Google “shows a ‘Where to Vote’ section with a map for Kamala Harris, but not for Donald Trump.” The post also falsely claimed Google is the top donor to the Democratic party. (The investment firm Bain Capital donates more, according to OpenSecrets.)
“Are others seeing this too?” Musk asked his more than 200m followers.
He responded to another similar post with an inquisitive, eyebrow-raised emoji.
The implication was clear. Musk, the richest man in the world and owner of X, who has spent over $132m backing Trump and other conservative causes this election, seemed to be suggesting a tech giant was trying to influence the election.
Are others seeing this too? https://t.co/mlwRY08hgo
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 5, 2024
Google quickly responded to the claims.
“The ‘where to vote’ panel is triggering for some specific searches bc Harris is also the name of a county in TX,” the company wrote on X, of Musk’s home base of Texas. “Happens for ‘Vance’ too bc it’s also the name of a county. Fix is coming. Note very few people actually search for voting places this way.”
“This is now fixed,” the company later explained, prompting Musk to answer, “Thanks for the clarification.”
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 5, 2024
The exchange seems not to have convinced some in Musk’s online orbit.
Valentina Gomez, a 25-year-old Republican who briefly went viral for a series of homophobic remarks in the course of an unsuccessful Missouri Secretary of State campaign, claimed in response to Musk, “This is a BS lie and they’re rushing to fix it because we caught them interfering in an election for the Democratic Party.”
Critics allege it is Musk who is attempting to have undo influence over the election.
In late October, a lawsuit from Philadelphia’s district attorney accused the billionaire of running an “illegal lottery scheme” by giving swing state voters who signed a Musk PAC’s petition supporting conservative causes the chance to randomly win $1m in a daily prize drawing.
The “where to vote” panel is triggering for some specific searches bc Harris is also the name of a county in TX. Happens for “Vance” too bc it’s also the name of a county. Fix is coming. Note very few people actually search for voting places this way. pic.twitter.com/P8xSxcJmLa
— News from Google (@NewsFromGoogle) November 5, 2024
In court on Monday, a lawyer for the PAC admitted the winners of the drawings were not randomly selected, but rather deliberately chosen to be paid “spokespeople” for the group.
Lawyer Chris Gober told a judge in Philadelphia on Monday that there is “no prize to be won” at all, and that recipients instead “must fulfill contractual obligations” on behalf of the PAC.
Musk argues the prize isn’t related to turning out Republican voters for Trump but rather gathering backers of a “petition in support of the Constitution of the United States, and in particular, freedom of speech and the right to bear arms.”
