Elon Musk’s political posts on X have received more than twice as many views as paid political ads on his platform, according to a new analysis conducted by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).
Since endorsing former President Trump in July, the billionaire’s political posts have amassed 17.1 billion views, the analysis found. During the same period, paid political ads costing about $10.7 million received 7.7 billion views.
CCDH estimates that political campaigns would have to pay $24 million to achieve the same reach as Musk’s posts.
Musk has become a central player in the Trump campaign, using his massive platform on X and his immense wealth to boost the former president.
The billionaire has dumped about $118 million into America PAC, his pro-Trump super PAC that has played a key role in the Trump campaign’s get-out-the-vote efforts in swing states. Musk himself has also appeared alongside Trump at rallies and held several town halls in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.
Amid this effort, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has occasionally pushed false or misleading claims about the election.
CCDH identified 87 posts from Musk between January and October promoting claims that have been disproved by fact-checkers. These posts amassed 2 billion views, according to the analysis.
His unsubstantiated claims about Democrats “importing voters” received nearly 1.3 billion views, while his posts casting doubt on the integrity of voting systems received 532 million views.
The Hill has reached out to X for comment.
CCDH and Musk have had a contentious relationship in recent years. Musk’s X sued the nonprofit in 2023, accusing it of illegally scraping data from the platform while assembling reports about the spread of hate speech and misinformation online.
The case was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, who found that the lawsuit based around “punishing” CCDH for their speech. However, X appealed the decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in April.
