Left-Wing Conspiracy Theories Surge on Social Media After Trump’s 2024 Win

[Social Media]

 

In the hours following Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory, social media platform X saw a surge in conspiracy theories, this time driven by the political left. Fueled by claims of “missing votes” and other suspicions, posts casting doubt on the legitimacy of the election proliferated on Elon Musk's platform, marking a shift from previous years when election denial was predominantly associated with Trump’s supporters.

 

According to research from PeakMetrics, the number of posts calling for recounts and questioning the results peaked at 94,000 per hour on Wednesday morning, with some posts receiving millions of views. “How can we have had record turnout and twenty million fewer votes cast nationally?” author John Pavlovitz wrote in a widely shared post viewed over 5 million times. Meanwhile, NewsGuard CEO Gordon Crovitz noted that terms like “Trump cheated” were trending, with over 92,000 mentions in just a few hours.

 

Although many of these theories remain vague, the predominant claim suggests that 20 million votes are “missing.” Factually, the Associated Press vote count at that time was lower than the 2020 count by around 16 million votes. However, this discrepancy is easily explained: several states, especially those with high populations like California, were still counting votes. Election officials and experts were quick to push back. “No, 20 million votes aren’t missing,” said David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, in a post on X. He emphasized that the total vote count for 2024 would likely mirror that of 2020 once all votes were reported.

 

These left-leaning conspiracy theories represent a significant challenge to democratic integrity, especially as they echo the denial tactics used by Trump’s supporters in 2020. “It doesn’t matter whether baseless allegations about voting irregularities come from the right or the left,” noted Nina Jankowicz, CEO of the American Sunlight Project. “The impact on our system of these lies is the same: People will end up trusting the infrastructure of democracy less, setting us up for more disinformation and disengagement.” She pointed to examples from Eastern Europe, where countries have struggled for decades to rebuild trust in their democratic systems after waves of misinformation.

 

PeakMetrics data highlighted the persistence of these conspiracy posts, noting that between 2 am and 7 am Eastern Time—when social media activity typically declines—the number of posts remained high, possibly indicating automated activity. By 8 am, the rate of posts surged to nearly 32,000 per hour. This wave of conspiracy posts marked a shift from 2020’s election denial, which was largely prompted by Trump himself; this time, Trump’s opponent Kamala Harris publicly urged her supporters to accept the results and pledged a peaceful transfer of power.

 

The phenomenon of “BlueAnon” conspiracy theories—a term that describes left-leaning accounts spreading unfounded claims—has gained traction in recent years. Mike Rothschild, an author who studies conspiracy theories, explains that events perceived as improbable, such as Trump’s victory, often fuel baseless narratives. “In this case, it’s a factually incorrect narrative that there are tens of millions of missing votes and that Russian bomb threats sabotaged the Harris campaign. Neither are true,” he stated, adding that lower turnout and ongoing vote counting explained the gaps.

 

Based on a report by Wired 2024-11-08

 

 

 

[jippytum]

Thank goodnest the election was not close. 

A resounding victory for Trump should silence these left wing conspiracy loonies. 

[spidermike007]

As a Centrist Democrat I can and will say that it appears to have been a fair election, Trump won fair and square by a margin of at least 5 million popular votes, and the public made a statement. The Democrats have failed, the party is broken, and they must take responsibility for this.

 

Throwing out crazy conspiracy theories, and being a sore loser is not the answer at this time. We must graciously accept defeat and if possible try and fix what is a completely broken Democratic Party. 

 

Of course it didn't help that they didn't get Biden to move aside two years ago, and it didn't help that Harris only had 3 months to run. It also didn't help that they chose an inferior candidate that tens of millions of people deeply disliked. But all those are just excuses at this point. 

[impulse]

What's funny is that the lefties are claiming the votes are missing in 2024, while the wingnuts on the right are claiming it's evidence of too many improper votes in 2020.

 

 

 

If one of those elections was anomalous, it isn't 2024.   But then, I love a good wingnut conspiracy theory.  So many of them have come true...

 

 

 

[bangadang]

I believe it was fair, and the GOP made sure any difficulties in 2020 were overcome. By the way, I believe 2020 was fair, but lots of manoeuvring by the Democrats did help their vote count. Some posters might not like it, but, luckily, the US decides its own fate, not a bunch of bored lefty expats over here.

[Thingamabob]

Utterly stupid to advance conspiracy theories until all the votes are counted and the final numbers are known.

[Thingamabob]

10 minutes ago, bangadang said:

I believe it was fair, and the GOP made sure any difficulties in 2020 were overcome. By the way, I believe 2020 was fair, but lots of manoeuvring by the Democrats did help their vote count. Some posters might not like it, but, luckily, the US decides its own fate, not a bunch of bored lefty expats over here.

Still can't figure out how Biden got 81million plus votes in 2020. Vastly greater than the numbers achieved by the likes of Clinton and Obama.

[impulse]

2 minutes ago, Thingamabob said:

Still can't figure out how Biden got 81million plus votes in 2020. Vastly greater than the numbers achieved by the likes of Clinton and Obama.

 

Welcome to the dark side.

 

[Thingamabob]

1 minute ago, impulse said:

 

Welcome to the dark side.

 

Thank you for the welcome. What comes next ?

[nauseus]

22 minutes ago, bangadang said:

I believe it was fair, and the GOP made sure any difficulties in 2020 were overcome. By the way, I believe 2020 was fair, but lots of manoeuvring by the Democrats did help their vote count. Some posters might not like it, but, luckily, the US decides its own fate, not a bunch of bored lefty expats over here.

 

"Maneuvering" lmfao.

[nauseus]

11 minutes ago, Thingamabob said:

Still can't figure out how Biden got 81million plus votes in 2020. Vastly greater than the numbers achieved by the likes of Clinton and Obama.

 

Amazing eh?

[Thingamabob]

3 minutes ago, nauseus said:

 

Amazing eh?

Indeed.

[JonnyF]

31 minutes ago, nauseus said:

 

Amazing eh?

 

Almost supernatural. 😄

[BigStar]

47 minutes ago, Thingamabob said:

Thank you for the welcome. What comes next ?

 

Bannon and his PAC intend to continue looking into it.

[JonnyF]

I saw one woman shaved her head hours after the result came in because she was convinced it meant she was going to be raped and wanted to appear unattractive.

 

Lots of other videos of Liberals screaming, crying, shaking, shouting to the heavens NOOOOOOO WWWHHHYYYYYYYY etc. 😆

 

But I guess you had to be a bit unhinged to vote for Kamala. 

[bangadang]

2 hours ago, nauseus said:

 

"Maneuvering" lmfao.

 Whoops... spellchecker broke again

[nauseus]

4 minutes ago, bangadang said:

 Whoops... spellchecker broke again

 

I was amused at the irony of the use of word, not the spelling.

[Nick Carter icp]

2 hours ago, impulse said:

What's funny is that the lefties are claiming the votes are missing in 2024, while the wingnuts on the right are claiming it's evidence of too many improper votes in 2020.

 

 

 

If one of those elections was anomalous, it isn't 2024.   But then, I love a good wingnut conspiracy theory.  So many of them have come true...

 

 

 

 

   Were there any measures implemented in the 2024 election to stop illegal votes ?

   Were the voting rules the same as 2020 or were they more stringent ?

[candide]

It's a thread about LW conspiracy theories, but as usual, the only posters pushing conspiracy theories in this thread are MAGA posters! 😃

[thaipo7]

2 hours ago, impulse said:

What's funny is that the lefties are claiming the votes are missing in 2024, while the wingnuts on the right are claiming it's evidence of too many improper votes in 2020.

 

 

 

If one of those elections was anomalous, it isn't 2024.   But then, I love a good wingnut conspiracy theory.  So many of them have come true...

 

 

 

Impulse - You don't even believe your own eyes.   There is something wrong with the picture.