Elon Musk's 'Raffle' Is Far More Dubious than 'Zuckerbucks'

For the better part of 24 hours, from October 20 well into October 21, the trend-pushing "What's Happening" list at Elon Musk's X social media platform promoted the term "Zuckerberg." But Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had done nothing special that day to make big news. Rather, a chorus of Musk allies was pounding away in unison at a single theme: A scheme to pay prospective new voters in battleground state Pennsylvania that had just brought Musk under fire was no worse than--and maybe not nearly as sinister as--what Zuckerberg had done four years ago in the 2020 election. "Just a reminder that Mark Zuckerberg spent $400 million on the 2020 election. They had no problem with big tech influence on the election until Elon backed Trump," wrote right-wing podcaster Clint Russell, in a tweet shared 10,000 times. "When Mark Zuckerberg gives $400+ million to Democrats, this is democracy at work. When @elonmusk uses his rights as a citizen to support his preferred political candidate, this cannot be tolerated," proclaimed Gad Saad, a professor in Canada with 1 million followers on X. And so the same talking point worked its way down the food chain of MAGA influencers.