Left-leaning social media users are taking to Meta’s “Twitter killer” social media app Threads and posting conspiracy theories alleging that President-elect Donald Trump was declared the winner of a contest that was rife with fraud.
One conspiracy theory that has been gaining currency on the left alleges that prominent Trump backer Elon Musk has utilized his Starlink internet satellites to hack into voting machines and alter the results.
“Are you f*ing kidding me?!?!?! Someone who’s openly campaining [sic] for one of the presidential parties is delivering the internet connection to voting machines and say ‘he can hack EVERYTHING’ and this gives no reason for concern?!??!” wrote one user on Threads.
A pro-Harris poster on Threads wrote: “Multiple sources reveal that Starlink was involved in tabulating the votes. Starlink. Owned and controlled by Elon Musk. Who worked for the Trump campaign. Hello? Anyone?”
“I like how no one from the press is talking about how Elon Musk just rigged the election,” a user under the handle alex.nick.jungle posted.
Another Threads user wrote: “Yooooo. Evidence of WIDESPREAD voter fraud & votes being thrown into the trash/woods and mysteriously going missing and being uncounted. This s–t is about to get crazy.”
One Threads commenter noted the discrepancy between the elections results in North Carolina, where a Democrat, Josh Stein, won the governor’s race by more than 800,000 votes while Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the state by fewer than 200,000 votes.
The North Carolina races for lieutenant governor, attorney general and secretary of state were all won by Democrats.
The success of Democrats in down-ballot races in the Tar-Heel State despite Trump’s victory there has fueled conspiracy theories online.
“Trump’s margin in NC is based ENTIRELY on under-votes,” one Threads user wrote. “This makes absolutely NO SENSE!”
Another Threads user couldn’t fathom that Trump handily won Iowa despite a last-minute poll by respected researcher Ann Selzer, which found Harris ahead in the state by three points.
“Ann seltzer [sic], the gold standard for poll watchers said Kamala was ahead in Iowa by 3points, and she loses it by 13? Odd things everywhere were happening,” wrote the Threads user.
Taylor Lorenz, the former Washington Post tech columnist, reported in her Substack newsletter that Threads users were widely sharing a post by someone named “Stephen Spoonamore,” a reputed tech expert who went by the moniker “liberal Q.”
According to the widely shared post, a “full blown #fascist takeover is underway” after Trump supporters managed to “hack the tabulation machines.”
“Be aware these people are sociopaths who will kill you, they have done so to others, so act accordingly,” the post from “Spoonamore” warned.
The Post has sought comment from Threads’ parent company Meta.
Threads, which was launched in July of last year, has amassed a base of 275 million monthly users, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last month.
The user base is 175% bigger than the 100 million users that the company reported a year ago. Zuckerberg told investors last month that Threads is signing up more than 1 million users per day.
Meta rolled out Threads to compete with X, Musk’s social media platform which has an estimated 318 million monthly users, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower.
