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CNN
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Elon Musk is using his social media platform to spread misinformation about the presidential candidates ahead of the November election. On Wednesday, he amplified false claims about a bomb threat at a Trump rally and about immigrants eating pets in Ohio.

While Musk’s posting provocative and inflammatory content on X is nothing new, the speed with which he has spread false claims in recent days is remarkable given the breadth of Musk’s digital reach, with his posts regularly landing at the top of users’ feeds.

The most famous of Musk’s conspiratorial posts came in the wake of an alleged second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, after which Musk wrote in a now-deleted X-post that “nobody is trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.” Following fierce reactions, Musk, who has pledged his support for Trump, finally deleted his postand explained that it was meant as a “joke”.

However, that same weekend, Musk also joined a chorus of conspiracy-theoretical X-users who fake “affidavit” of an alleged “whistleblower” who claimed last week The ABC News debate was manipulated to help Kamala Harris. ABC has since confirmed that the typo-riddled document was fake.

Then on Wednesday, Musk repeated the false claim that a bomb had been discovered near the site of a planned Trump rally on Long Island. Police said in a statement that “reports of explosives being found at the site are unfounded.”

While Musk’s succinct response to the false threat is still visible on X, the original post has since been deleted. Musk’s own post was accompanied by a crowdsourced fact-check in the form of “Community Notes” making it clear that the claim was false. Nevertheless, the post was viewed 4.3 million times and shared 9,800 times in its first two and a half hours.

Also on Wednesday: Musk shared again a video falsely claiming that the city manager of Springfield, Ohio, admitted in March that there were reports of Haitian immigrants eating pets. The post was captioned “Always Be Cheating News,” a clear attack on ABC moderators who fact-checked Trump’s false claims on the issue during the debate. The edited video instead shows a Springfield resident saying he had heard unconfirmed reports of pets being harmed. Both the mayor and the city manager stated during the hearing that they had seen no evidence to support such claims.

Musk’s post, which amplified false claims about Haitian immigrants spread by Trump and his running mate JD Vance and led to dozens of bomb threats outside schools and municipal buildings in the Ohio city, garnered more than 7.9 million views and 36,000 reshares.

Hours later, Musk divided a map purporting to be from Nate Silver, the renowned statistician and founder of FiveThirtyEight. It predicted a 312-226 victory for Trump in the Electoral College in November and said the election was going “well.” The map, however, was a fake.

The real map from Silver’s Silver Bulletin newsletter platform, released Wednesday, shows several states in the race, including Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, and Silver himself noted in the post that “the race is really neck-and-neck.” Meanwhile, simulations from FiveThirtyEight, which Silver split from last year, projected Harris as the winner of the election in 64 out of 100 simulations.

X did not respond to CNN’s request for comment on Musk’s posts on Wednesday.

Musk is far from the only one spreading false information on the platform, but he is undoubtedly one of the most vocal voices. Many of the false claims the billionaire has been circulating in recent days have also been supported by other major right-wing voices.

Since taking over Twitter in 2022, Musk has gutted the company’s moderation teams and changed its policies, allowing misinformation and hate speech to spread on the platform. Musk has also reinstated the accounts of previously suspended conspiracy theorists, created financial incentives for posting viral content, and ended the legitimacy of verified badges.

But the combination of Musk’s 198 million followers and an algorithm that boosts his posts has uncovered false claims that would normally be found in less visible corners of the internet. Although Musk portrays himself as a champion of absolute freedom of speech, his tendency to support posts by far-right fringe groups while regularly attacking news organizations and journalists poses a major problem for voters looking for reliable information online in an already turbulent election campaign.