Was the 2024 election stolen?

Since Donald Trump became president-elect of the United States, some have been spreading a conspiracy theory on social media that billionaire Elon Musk hacked the election.

And how did he do it?

By using its Starlink Internet service, they claim.

But what do we know about this theory?

Let’s take a closer look:

A Brief Overview of Starlink

First, let’s take a brief look at Starlink.

The company is a satellite Internet service provider.

It’s a SpaceX arm of Musk.

The Musk-led rocket maker operates the largest constellation of communications satellites and provides internet connectivity to residential and business customers, largely in locations with limited or no internet access.

“Starlink is ideally suited to areas where connectivity is unreliable or completely unavailable,” its website states. “People around the world use Starlink to access education, healthcare services, and even communications assistance during natural disasters.”

In recent years,
MuskCEO of SpaceX, sought to expand Starlink’s coverage to reach more users around the world.

Starlink owns about 60% of the approximately 7,500 satellites orbiting Earth and is a dominant player in satellite internet.

The thousands of Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit use inter-satellite laser links to transmit data between them through space at the speed of light, allowing the network to provide Internet coverage around the world.

It was used by Ukrainian forces and proved invaluable to their defense.

What do we know about this conspiracy theory?

Those who propagate this theory point to the popular vote tallies obtained by Harris and Trump.

Trump has won 74 million votes so far, while Harris has 71 million.

And this, even if the popular vote count continues to come from several states.

Biden, on the other hand, received 81 million votes in 2020, while Trump received 74 million.

The theory espoused by some online is that “millions of votes” for Harris somehow disappeared – particularly in the seven swing states Trump won.

Who is behind these “missing votes”?

Starlink – which belongs to
Elon Musk, Trump supporter – which they believe was used at polling stations to tabulate votes.

Comments Trump made before the election that he “got all the votes he needed” and that he had a “little secret” with House Speaker Mike Johnson added to the oil on the fire.

Some also point to podcaster Joe Rogan’s comment that
Musk knew the election results “four hours before” Trump defeated Harris.

Rogan also claimed that Musk had an “app” that allowed him to know the winner of the election hours before the results.

The problem with this theory is that experts say voting machines are generally not connected to the Internet.

As stated by Chip Trowbridge, Chief Technology Officer of Clear Ballot, a manufacturer of voting systems tested and approved by the federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC). ABC News“These systems absolutely cannot have a network.

“In fact, if you look at Clear Ballot’s machines, the only wire coming out of them is a power cord.”

Ishan Mehta, director of media and democracy at Common Cause, said Al Jazeera that the elections took place in complete safety.

“There is no evidence that any votes went missing,” Mehta said.

“There is no such thing as ‘hacking’ to change the outcome of an election or change the vote totals,” Mehta said. “Each state has its own independent, unconnected systems. »

What about “missing votes”?

Well, there is a simple explanation for this.

Paul Gronke, professor of political science at Reed College, said Al Jazeera Turnout depends on many factors, including voter enthusiasm and campaign effectiveness.

“Election officials, election observers, election lawyers, partisan observers, nonpartisan observers and election science experts like me pay very close attention to elections at all levels,” Gronke said. “A few problems have been reported in scattered locations. There is no evidence of anything fraudulent, certainly not on the scale suggested here.

The irony is that Trump and his allies, including Musk, recently and in 2020, were happy to jump aboard the conspiracy theory train when it suited them in the run-up to the election.

After all, Trump has spent the last few months complaining about voter fraud and claiming the election was rigged.

Musk, who campaigned for Trump, called voting machines “too easy to hack” and called for the use of paper ballots.

This, despite the fact that America overwhelmingly uses paper ballots.

Of course, Trump and Musk no longer make such claims now that their candidate has won the election.

Harris and Biden, on the other hand, have not contested the election results.

With the contribution of agencies