Over the past 18 months, Elon Musk’s X platform has become a hotbed of misinformation, particularly around breaking news such as the Gaza conflict and the Baltimore bridge collapse. But after Thursday’s presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, the expected torrent of misinformation and conspiracy theories that flooded the platform never materialized.
Instead of sharing conspiracies about the debate, Trump simply posted multiple unedited clips of Biden’s answers on his Truth Social platform.
“WOW, WHAT IS HE SAYING?!” said one post, which features a clip of Biden doing a nonsensical comment about Medicare.
Another montage video of the worst moments of the Biden debate shared by Trump on Truth Social was later shared widely on other platforms, including X, Facebook and Telegram, racking up millions of views.
In what was seen as a critical opportunity to reassure his supporters about his fitness to serve a second term as president, Biden’s appearance at the debate was widely criticized by lawmakers, political pundits and viewers across the political spectrum for lack of energy and coherence. Biden’s campaign team tried to explain the president’s performance claiming that he had a coldand even Vice President Kamala Harris said Biden had a “slow start.” And while Trump promoted conspiracies and misinformation During the debate on issues such as immigration, abortion, on January 6, most of which was not questioned, Biden’s ability It became the most discussed detail of the evening..
On X, pro-Trump accounts that are normally happy to share even the wildest conspiracies about Biden were gleefully sharing previously unreleased clips of Biden from the debate stage.
Many Trump supporters also criticized the media for its coverage of so-called cheap fakes in the days leading up to the debate, referring to video clips shared online that have been deceptively edited to make Biden appear old, frail and senile.
“Hey @PressSec, was tonight’s entire debate a “cheap fake” video? I need your analysis. Thanks,” right-wing radio host Clay Travis posted on X after the debate. “Is the Biden team going to claim this entire debate is a cheap fake?” political commentator Krystal Ball added.
In addition to sharing clips from the debate, Trump supporters online also widely shared clips from left-leaning media outlets like CNN and MSNBC where pundits described “panic” among Democrats They were talking after Biden’s performance.
Even in the most fringe corners of the internet, including pro-Trump message boards and QAnon channels on Telegram, the majority of posts being shared were Biden’s responses juxtaposed with Trump’s grimaces.
“The online community has condensed the entire debate into a few moments in which Biden appears to mutter awkwardly, lose his train of thought or stare at Trump in split-screen shots,” said Tauhid Zaman, a professor at the School of Management. from Yale, he tells WIRED. “What is surprising is the absence of viral clips that favor Biden. Instead, Democratic social media users are criticizing Biden’s debate performance and discussing possible replacements.”
