One of the most popular election-rigging ideas on the straight in 2020 was the” Italygate” idea that posited European military satellites “interfered” with American election machines, switching votes from Trump to Biden.
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Some government officials took the idea really enough to conduct an investigation. Christopher Miller, the acting secretary of defense, contacted Italian leaders in Rome to inquire about it. Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, who is also a member of the White House, was likewise commissioned to investigate it.  ,
Some on the left criticized the idea that European satellites could hack British voting machines. I wonder what they’re saying now about the magical election-denying idea that Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service was used to “tabulate” vote in swing state. ” Flip states were able to utilize Starlink in order to count up and to count vote seats, or voting vote, in their state”, claimed TikTok user Etheria77 in a movie.
Starlink terminals are unable to “tabulate” everything, but the picture has gotten about 5 million views and remarkably, perhaps mainstream news outlets have felt the need to disprove the theory.
Election officials in some states “were using Starlink terminals to enhance internet connectivity at remote polling locations,” according to Alex Demas of The Bulwark. Starlink was not used to count or transfer seats in the jump states, according to the statement.
Of course, it was n’t. The remaining is only one of a number of conspiracy theories that are being promoted, though, and the Starlink concept is just one.
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Left-wing experts claim that the Starlink concept is being promoted by “fringe” liberals. That’s fine because the majority of Democrats have been supporting fabricated information about Trump and Russia for ten years.
The lack of internet connectivity makes the Starlink conspiracy theory thus absurd. After voting ends on Election Day and the memory cards that contain the vote counts have been removed, the Associated Press reported in October that” some areas in a few states allow for ballot devices in polling locations to communicate illegal results using a mobile exclusive system.”
Max Read, a senior research manager for elections at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank studying extremism, hate and disinformation, said the post-election denialism popping up on the left is” the most significant” effort to dispute or undermine elections he has observed from that side of the aisle.
Liberal spaces or left-leaning actors on the internet exhibit limited engagement in these kinds of things, Read told NBC News. In comparison to the right, the discourse is “quite insignificant.”
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It’s “kind of natural for those who view this election result as a crisis for themselves or just a shock” to look for something to explain why your expectations were n’t met, as people often seek easy answers in times of crisis,” and for those who view this election result as a crisis for themselves or just a shock,” Read said. And I believe that is true for all ideological groups, with occasional shocks and ambiguities about where to look for answers and falling into and latching onto untrue but simple explanations.
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Even more bizarre theories exist regarding Starlink and Musk.
Joe Rogan claimed that Musk had” created an app” to view the election results hours in advance in an episode of his podcast a week after the election. Creators of left-leaning websites began to question how Musk might have gotten these results, elaborating an unconstitutional theory that Starlink was used to manipulate vote counts. According to a local news report that claimed one district in California relied on Starlink’s internet services, the report claimed that Starlink was used to connect poll workers ‘ laptops to the internet rather than the voting machines, the video had 300,000 views. California’s majority cast ballots for Harris. Harris ‘ concession speech, which she said,” Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars,” was referenced in another TikTok video, which implied that she was referring to Starlink.
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Political commentator and adjunct professor at George Washington University Cheri Jacobus posted on Threads,” Musk’s Starlink uploaded votes in swing states.” ” Swing state voters voted for Trump, not Dem, in the top”? ] Unlikely ]”.
Max Read believes that those who are at the losing end of a conflicted race will frequently scurry out desperate for answers and latch on to the simplest conspiracy theory, even when it has no actual supporting evidence. That describes the 2024 Democratic Party’s belief that Trump would win the election.