In July of 2020, entrepreneur and innovator Elon Musk made a tweet claiming that children do not need to receive the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. This tweet was quickly debunked by medical professionals, as well as a majority of Twitter users, who widely criticized and disagreed with Musk’s misinformation.
However, recently this disapproval of Musk’s medical advice took a new form. With the hashtag #CorrectElon, Twitter users decided to take a stand against the false information by creating a twitter poll. The poll asked users to rate the accuracy of Musk’s advice on a scale of 1-4, with 1 being “Totally wrong” and 4 being “Totally correct”. Musk also weighed in on the poll, voicing his opposition to the rating scale by responding, “#notsureifsarcasm”.
While Musk’s reply garnered mixed reactions, the poll results showed a large majority of users voting against the entrepreneur’s tweet. Out of the 35,000 responses, over 75% of Twitter users rated Musk’s advice as either “Totally wrong” (34%) or “Mostly wrong” (41%). Only 4% of the responses rated Musk’s statement as “Totally correct”, an indication that the majority of Twitter users reject the misinformation.
The wide support of #CorrectElon’s poll demonstrates the power of social media in holding those in positions of influence accountable. Furthermore, it serves as a reminder to the public that false information, on any topic, should not be taken lightly and that fact-checking is an important process in forming opinions and making decisions. In this case, the overwhelming amount of poll responses shows that the power of knowledge can be greater than the power of fame.
