As vote counting continues in the United States, numerous false claims of voter fraud are being spread on social media. This includes the alleged manipulation of voting machines and ballot papers.

X owner Elon Musk has long attracted attention by spreading false claims about the US election. On Tuesday, he shared a post suggesting that Google was telling Kamala Harris supporters where to vote — but wasn't doing the same for people whose preferred candidate was Donald Trump.

Claim: Musk has expanded a post on X claims that Google displays a “Where to Vote” section with a map that is offered to Harris supporters but not to those of Donald Trump. The post received 36 million views. Musk also shared a postin which he tested the search himself, but removed it shortly afterwards. Numerous Other users also complained about their search results.

DW fact check: Misleading

In fact, when users typed the question “Where can I vote for Harris,” a map appeared. A search for “Trump” returned only news articles. But according to Google, there's a simple reason it only shows a map for Harris and not Trump. In a direct answer According to Musk's claim, Google confirmed that the map was displayed because “Harris” is the name of a county in Texas. Something similar happens when you type “Where you vote for Vance,” since “Vance” is a county in North Carolina. Trump, on the other hand, is not the name of a county in the United States.

Googlewhich itself shared information about how Google Search and Maps can help U.S. voters find their polling places, promised to fix the problem quickly, according to an X post from the companydid so shortly afterwards. If you're searching for “Where to vote for Harris?”“Now news articles will appear like they did for Trump. Musk responded to Google's message and thanked the company for the clarification, but the original video is still posted to his account.

DW also fact-checked several of Musk's previous posts about the election.

Edited by: M. Gagnon

This article is part of a collaboration between the public fact check teams ARD-Faktenfinder, BR24 #Faktenfuchs and DW Fact Check on the 2024 US elections.