JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
It has been nearly two years since Elon Musk purchased Twitter. Since then, he's renamed the social media site X and turned many parts of the site upside down. Perhaps the biggest change of all is how the billionaire is using the platform as a megaphone to send former President Donald Trump back to the White House. NPR's Bobby Allyn and Shannon Bond have been covering Musk's remaking of X, and they join us now. Welcome to you both.
BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.
SHANNON BOND, BYLINE: Hi, Juana.
SUMMERS: Shannon, over to you first. Elon Musk used to support Democrats, but recently, he's become one of Trump's most high-profile supporters. Help us understand how that happened.
BOND: Yeah. Well, Musk has been leaning more conservative in his personal politics since the pandemic. Even back in the 2022 midterms, you know, he posted on what was then Twitter that people should vote for Republicans. But this year it's really been an acceleration. He has gone all in on Trump, endorsing him after the July assassination attempt. He's founded America PAC, backing Trump. He's put $75 million into that. And he's funding get-out-the-vote operations, including offering million-dollar prizes to registered voters who sign a petition, which may or may not be legal. Musk is also stumping for Trump, you know, on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania. And as you said, he's using X as a megaphone to boost Trump. I spoke with Eddie Perez, who led Twitter's election integrity work before Musk takeover. Here's how he put it.
EDDIE PEREZ: This is a textbook example of the influence that, I think it's fair to say, an oligarch can have in a way that really is impactful to the entire body politic.
BOND: Perez says, you know, it's really this combination of Musk's money and his control of a major communications platform that really stands out this year.
SUMMERS: Bobby, over to you. Elon Musk himself is the loudest voice on X. He's even tweaked the site in order to amplify his own posts. Give us some examples. How is he using this platform that he owns to boost Trump?
ALLYN: Yeah. Well, Musk gave Trump a friendly two-hour interview on X that millions of people watched. That was back in August. Now, just two weeks away from the election, I think anyone who uses X, Juana, will tell you that Musk's posts and many about Trump are just unavoidable, right? Even if you don't follow Musk, you're likely to see his pro-Trump content filling up your timeline. And part of this is because X's feed includes a mix of people you follow and stuff from people you don't follow that is trending on the site. And since Musk's 200-plus million followers make him the most popular user on the site, his posts are often going viral. I called up Erik Berlin about this. He left X last year, but he used to manage a group of software engineers at X. And he said it is true that Musk's pro-Trump politics are just inundating everyone's feeds.
ERIK BERLIN: I mean, I think there's no doubt that Elon has a political bent. I don't know if that's sort of encoded into the algorithm. You know, largely, I think it's just a reflection of the user base - Elon fans, Trump fans.
ALLYN: Yeah. Berlin is saying that since Musk is the biggest user on the site, his views are just shaping the entire platform, and as I've mentioned these days, Musk is tweeting a lot about Donald Trump.
SUMMERS: Right. Shannon, tell us. What have these changes meant for the site as a place where people come to gather information?
BOND: Well, as Bobby says, you know, he's tweeting about Trump. He's setting the tone here. But in addition to that, he's also trafficking in unverified rumors, misleading claims, sometimes outright falsehoods and conspiracy theories, both through what he is posting himself and then also what he is resharing or replying to from other users. And Musk has really emerged recently as a leading booster of these baseless claims that Democrats are bringing in immigrants to illegally vote for them. You know, and many people are saying that may be one way Trump could challenge election results.
Musk has also amplified debunked rumors about Haitian immigrants and made false claims about the government not aiding victims of the recent hurricanes. He shared anti-Ukraine memes that actually turned out to be Russian propaganda. And, Juana, this is all turned off people. You know, there are many users who have left X. Advertisers have pulled out. Overall, the site is just seen as a much less reliable source of information these days.
SUMMERS: Right. And this raises a question about what this has done to hurt X's bottom line. When Musk bought the site for $44 billion, didn't he have really big plans, like, to boost its business?
ALLYN: He did. Musk had all sorts of grandiose plans when he bought the site back then. You know, he was talking about turning the platform into a so-called everything app - so, like, ride-sharing, online shopping, money transfers all in one. That never happened. He also hoped, you know, people would buy his paid subscription, but most users did not sign up. The brokerage firm Fidelity was a major investor when Musk took over Twitter, and it recently estimated, Juana, that the value of its stake in the site has dropped nearly 80%. And look. Advertisers just aren't rushing back to the site that is effectively a partisan platform whose CEO is cheering loudly for one presidential candidate.
SUMMERS: NPR's Bobby Allyn and Shannon Bond. Thanks to both of you.
ALLYN: Thanks, Juana.
BOND: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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