Left wing conspiracy theorists falsely claim Elon Musks Starlink satellite network stole the US presidency for Trump by tampering with election result
A bizarre left wing conspiracy theory has falsely claimed that Elon Musks Starlink satellites were used to steal the US presidency for Trump.
A bizarre left wing conspiracy theory has falsely claimed that Elon Musks Starlink satellites were used to steal the US presidency for Trump.
Claims are circulating across social media that 20million votes in the election have disappeared and that Musks satellites were used to interfere with vote-counting machines.
The allegations are unsubstantiated with no evidence being produced to support the claims with many voting machines in the US typically not being able to connect to the internet to prevent election interference.
Meanwhile, allegations that millions of votes are missing is likely due to slow voting in large states such as California which - as of today- had only processed around 76 per cent of ballots despite being called for Kamala Harris last week.
The Daily Telegraph reported that the director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Jen Easterly . said there was no evidence of any malicious activity that had a material impact on the security or integrity of our election infrastructure.
Claims are circulating across social media that 20million votes in the election have disappeared and that Elon Musks starlink satellites were used to interfere with vote-counting machines
Trumps victory last week which saw him win the popular vote and saw Democrats face their worst result since 1988 has led disgruntled left wing voters to share false claims online
Posts on Musk-owned X promoting the conspiracy theories around Starlink have gained thousands of likes
Nevertheless, conspiracy theories from disgruntled left wing voters, unhappy with Tuesdays result which was the worst showing for Democrats in a presidential election since 1988, continue to circulate the false claims.
The posts are receiving thousands of likes and millions of views. One video shared on TikTok claiming that states had used Starlink in order to tally up or count ballots had more than 100,000 likes and almost one million views.
Other conspiracy theorists on the platform have made outlandish claims that Vice president Harris was making references to Starlink during her concession speech.
During her speech, Harris quoted an old adage which said: Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.
Many people online have latched onto quote - which has been used in the past by prominent figures including Martin Luther King Jr - to justify their unfounded concerns the election was stolen.
Likewise, on Musk-owned X posts promoting the conspiracy theories around Starlink have also gained thousands of likes.
Despite Trumps landslide victory in the election, right wing conspiracy theorists are also perpetuating false claims that the decrease in voter turnout this year vindicates their false concerns in 2020.
The allegations of Starlink involvement in the election are unsubstantiated with no evidence being produced to support the claims with many voting machines in the US typically not being able to connect to the internet to prevent election interference
Right wing conspiracy theorists are also perpetuating claims that last weeks result vindicates their false concerns during the 2020 election
Kamala Harris during her concession speech. Online conspiracy theorists have made outlandish claims that Vice president Harris was making references to Starlink during her concession speech
Fact-checkers have rushed to debunk the claims.
Disinformation analysts at NewsGuard reported that in the hours after it became apparent that Mr Trump had won, Left-leaning social media users claimed that the apparent momentum behind Kamala Harris before the election made it impossible for her to lose, so the only explanation was widespread fraud.
Meanwhile, analysts at Cyabra, an Israeli start-up that tracks disinformation campaigns, said the surge in these posts was initially driven by a network of fake accounts, before real online influencers picked up the claims.
Cyabra found that 270 apparently fake X profiles sent more than 2,100 posts including the hashtag, which were viewed around 40m times. After this, real Harris supporters then started to share the same claims.
MailOnline have approached X and TikTok for a comment.
