Elon Musk has been spreading false information about Mark Zuckerberg, report says:- Elon Musk claimed on Monday that Mark Zuckerberg, a fellow billionaire in the tech industry, spent significant amounts of money to support Democratic candidates, including President Joe Biden, in the 2020 election.
However, this assertion echoes a misleading claim propagated by supporters of election fraud conspiracy theories, including former President Donald Trump.
“My understanding is that Zuckerberg spent $400 million in the last election, ostensibly for a get-out-the-vote campaign, but in reality, it was primarily in support of Democrats,” Musk stated in an interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News, which aired on Monday night.
Musk is referring to the donations totaling $419 million made by Zuckerberg and his wife to the Center for Tech and Civic Life and the Center for Election Innovation & Research in September and October 2020, which were nonprofits aimed at assisting with in-person voting.
“Does that sound unbiased to you?” Musk asked Carlson rhetorically, and later tweeted, “Umm… no,” in response to his own question.
This claim, which Musk is echoing, was most notably endorsed by Trump, who baselessly alleged in October 2021 that Zuckerberg “changed the course of a Presidential Election” and called him a “criminal.”
However, a fact check by the Associated Press in 2022 found that these claims of Zuckerberg swaying the election in favor of Democrats were “missing context” and influenced by false claims of election fraud.
In 2021, Benjamin Hovland, the commissioner of the Election Assistance Commission, testified before Congress that Zuckerberg’s donation was used for “the basics,” such as personal protective equipment, disinfecting polling centers, and ensuring social distancing measures during the election.
Musk and Zuckerberg, both long-time billionaires in Silicon Valley, became rivals officially in October when Musk unexpectedly acquired Twitter. Musk has identified himself as a “free speech absolutist” and has worked towards reducing what he perceives as a liberal bias on Twitter by removing much of its content moderation protocols and restoring the accounts of various right-wing figures, including Trump.
On the other hand, Zuckerberg has not publicly declared his political affiliation and has made donations to both Democrats and Republicans, as indicated in federal election records. In October 2020, Zuckerberg stated in a post that accusations of a “partisan agenda” driving his significant donations were “false.”
Additionally, a spokesperson for Chan and Zuckerberg confirmed to the New York Times in April of the following year that the couple would not repeat the donations, characterizing them as a “one-time” gift aimed at assisting Americans in voting during the peak of the pandemic.
According to Forbes’ calculations, Musk is currently the second richest American with a net worth of $189 billion, while Zuckerberg ranks as the 10th richest American with a net worth of $78 billion.
Musk’s wealth is primarily derived from his stake in Tesla, the electric vehicle company where he serves as CEO, while Zuckerberg’s wealth largely stems from his stake in Meta, where he has been CEO since its founding in 2004.
During his rare interview with Carlson, Musk made several other notable statements. He confirmed that he believes Twitter is now worth only half of the $44 billion that he paid to acquire the company in 2022. He also expressed his intention to create “TruthGPT,” an artificial intelligence program aimed at competing with OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Information Source: Forbes
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