Starlink didn’t reply to a request for remark.
This conspiracy idea has continued to unfold, and it isn’t restricted to X: Reddit dialogue threads, Instagram and Threads posts, and dozens of Facebook posts all assist the narrative that Musk colluded with Trump to make use of his Starlink satellites to steal the elections.
One of probably the most energetic platforms for these conspiracy theories is TikTok. WIRED reviewed dozens of movies posted on the platform by customers that repeat the declare about Musk and Starlink or add new twists to the conspiracy idea.
X, Meta, Reddit and TikTok didn’t reply to requests for remark.
One of the most well-liked new points of the speculation issues the truth that Starlink satellites have been observed a fire in the United States last weekend, which proponents of the conspiracy idea declare is proof of Musk’s try and cowl his tracks. THE reality is that Starlink satellites are designed to expend upon reentry on the finish of their lives.
The conspiracy idea has points surprisingly much like the so-called Italygate conspiracy pushed by the Trump campaign after the 2020 election, which urged that an Italian army satellite tv for pc had been used to shift votes from Trump to President Joe Biden.
“It’s troubling to see it solidify and crystallize into particular narratives, after which see issues added to it — that is what we noticed final time, too,” Thomas says. “You see this sort of collective storytelling occurring inside these communities the place people who find themselves attempting to realize affect on-line by pushing a brand new model of a conspiracy idea, all of them have so as to add their little bits to allow them to get their involvement.”
Other conspiracy theorists stated Trump talked about “a bit secret” he revealed on stage that he had with Musk, referring to a remark he made at his Madison Square Garden rally final month. Indeed, the remark was directed at House Speaker Mike Johnson. Some left-leaning accounts additionally singled out the podcaster Joe Rogan’s comments this week that Musk had developed a bespoke app to offer him early entry to election outcomes.
“Elon apparently created an app and knew who gained the election 4 hours earlier than the outcomes,” Rogan stated. “So because the outcomes have been coming in, 4 hours earlier than they introduced it, Dana White informed me that Elon stated, ‘I’m leaving. It’s over. Donald gained.’” It’s unclear how this app labored or what knowledge it used.
This was acknowledged by Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency which oversees American elections a statement dated November 6 that there was “no proof of malicious exercise that materially impacted the safety or integrity of our election infrastructure.”
While some right-wing figures proceed to advertise election conspiracy theories, the overwhelming majority have remained silent within the wake of Trump’s victory, abandoning 4 years of nonstop posts and shouting about voter fraud in a single day.
And whereas left-wing election conspiracies are nowhere close to the size of the Stop the Steal motion of some weeks in the past, some specialists are nonetheless involved.
“I’ve seen some comparisons to Stop the Steal and a few of these different right-wing election conspiracy theories, and it is smaller than these, as they have been on the finish of the Trump presidency,” Thomas says. “But I feel the numerous distinction is that they got here after months, if not years, of deliberate agitation and cultivation by a wide range of actors. So, for me, to see these left-wing voter fraud conspiracy theories shortly acquire fairly important traction, I feel, personally, is kind of regarding.
