The election campaign in the United States has been characterized by a large social media spread of false claims about election fraud, manipulated ballots and foreign tourists who were able to vote in the United States.
The announcement that Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States has not silenced whispers of election fraud. Instead, false claims about the outcome continue to spread – now from both Republican and Democrat sides.
“We all know Trump cheated”, and “What the hell happened to 15 million votes” writes one user on X. Another user on Gettr demands that “everyone responsible for the stolen election of 2020” should now be “thrown in jail”. Photo: X/Gettr
A viral post, originally posted on X and then spread to other platforms, graphs the number of people who voted in previous presidential elections compared to this year’s election, which has not yet been fully counted.
This graph has been viewed millions of times, and used as “proof” of the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen. Photo: X
Claims spread from both sides are about voters who “went up in smoke” – and in some contexts voices are raised that Donald Trump should “investigate and punish those responsible for the stolen election”.
In the video above, US correspondent Fouad Youcefi finds out how it really is – and whether Trump has a political interest in listening to vengeful voices in social media.