--- title: "Gullible Elon Musk Got Fooled Into Sharing Putin-Backed Propaganda Meme" description: "Elon Musk shared a meme last year that was part of an orchestrated and Kremlin-backed propaganda influence campaign." date: "2024-09-19" modified: "2024-09-19" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-shared-putin-propaganda-meme" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "disinformation" - "elon musk" - "propaganda" - "Russia" - "the digest" - "twitter" --- # Gullible Elon Musk Got Fooled Into Sharing Putin-Backed Propaganda Meme ![Elon Musk shared a meme last year that was part of an orchestrated and Kremlin-backed propaganda influence campaign.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Sowing Discord In March, the US government [accused]() the founder of Moscow-based company Social Design Agency of orchestrating a "persistent foreign malign influence campaign" on behalf of the Kremlin. The propaganda operation, dubbed "Doppelganger," involved spreading memes, deepfaked videos, and falsified documents online to alienate the West from Ukraine and its leadership following Russia's 2022 invasion. The company is [overseen by a top aide]() to Russian president Vladimir Putin, and has attempted to discredit Ukraine's military and political leadership by flooding social media with propaganda. And as it turns out, [infamously gullible]() billionaire and X-formerly-Twitter owner Elon Musk appears to have gotten duped by the campaign. In October 2023, Musk [shared a meme]() to his millions of followers showing Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky straining his face, with the caption reading: "When it’s been 5 minutes and you haven’t asked for a billion dollars in aid." According to leaked documents [obtained by a number of European media outlets](), the meme — alongside a number of other posts that were not shared by Musk — was put together by none other than the Social Design Agency. The incident highlights just how ubiquitous disinformation and propaganda have become on Musk's social media platform. And it's not just its users sowing chaos and spreading hate speech — the company's owner is actively contributing to the trend himself. ## Mr. Fake News It's far from the first time we've seen Musk actively sharing disinformation on X. Earlier this year, Musk [shared a video on the platform]() that purported to show "armed communist Maduro gangs 'Colectivos' are now storming polling stations in Punta Cardón." As it later turned out, that was a complete lie. "Those are thieves stealing air conditioners and a woman can be heard in the video saying so," a community note appended to the post later read. "Voting in Venezuela is done on small computers that look nothing like what appears in this video." Then last month, Musk replied to an [easily disproven story]() about UK prime minister Keir Starmer "considering building 'emergency detainment camps' on the Falkland Islands." "Just Elon Musk quote tweeting the co-leader of far-right party, Britain First, who is sharing a fake *Telegraph* headline," *Politics.co.uk* editor Josh Self [tweeted]() at the time. "Utterly dystopian." In flagrant disregard for his own platform's policies, Musk [also shared an AI-generated video of vice president Kamala Harris]() in July. It's a sad state of affairs: a billionaire US contractor actively spread Russian propaganda. And chances are he won't ever be held accountable — after all, X is his own echo chamber, and he does with it what he pleases. **More on gullible Musk:** *[Gullible Elon Musk Falls for Fake News Again, Deletes Post]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()