On Monday, Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), criticized US Vice President Kamala Harris for “lying” about former President Donald Trump’s stance on a national abortion ban. Harris had posted on X that Trump, who is running against Joe Biden in the upcoming November 5 US presidential election, “would ban abortion nationwide.” She also pledged that she and Biden would do “everything in their power to stop him and restore women’s reproductive freedom.”
However, her post was flagged by a community note, a fact-checking feature on X that allows users to collaboratively add context to potentially misleading posts. The community note stated that “President Trump has repeatedly said he will not sign a national abortion ban.”
Musk responded by criticizing Harris, stating, “When will politicians, or at least the intern who runs their account, learn that lying on this platform doesn’t work anymore?” He included a screenshot of Harris’s post with the community note.
The issue of abortion bans has been a significant topic in the presidential campaigns between Biden, a Democrat, and Trump, his Republican opponent. Abortion regulation was handed to the states following the US Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn the historic Roe v. Wade ruling, which had previously protected abortion rights nationwide.
X describes Community Notes as a collaborative effort to keep people better informed. According to X’s help center, Community Notes “aims to create a better-informed world by empowering people on X to collaboratively add context to potentially misleading posts.”
Musk has frequently praised the Community Notes feature, which was introduced on the platform after he took over X in 2022.
