Support for Selenskyj

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Elon Musk sees himself as an advocate of freedom of expression - as long as the opinion corresponds to his own.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/APA/AFP/Mauro PIMENTEL, APA/Drew ANGERER)

Following Donald Trump's verbal attacks on Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Zelensky, tech billionaire Elon Musk has backed the US president. The Trump adviser explained on X on Thursday that the "community notes" function on his online platform was being "increasingly abused by governments and traditional media". He was in the process of "fixing" this.

Referring to the recent spat between Zelensky and Trump, Musk added: "It should be completely obvious that a Zelensky-driven poll about his own approval rating is not credible." Zelenskyi is "despised by the Ukrainian people, so he refused to organize an election," Musk wrote, following the Russian narrative.

With the "Community Notes" function, users can check posts that may contain disinformation and add context. Musk, who claims to be an alleged advocate of freedom of speech, introduced this function in 2022 when he took over the online service, which was still known as Twitter at the time.

Until now, X has relied on users and their comments on published content to verify facts. The "collective comments" system provides a method "for people on X to collectively write helpful comments for potentially misleading posts", according to the online service's instructions.

57 percent approval rating for the Ukrainian president
On Tuesday, Trump had claimed that Zelenskyi had an approval rating of just four percent among the Ukrainian population. However, a poll published on Wednesday attested to Zelenskyi's approval rating of 57 percent.

On Wednesday, Trump then referred to Zelensky as a "dictator without elections". Zelensky's term of office officially came to an end in May 2024, but no elections can currently be held in Ukraine due to martial law.

Backing for Zelenskyi
Meanwhile, Zelenskyi not only received backing from Ukraine's allies, but also from Ukrainian internet users. On X, for example, a fake cover picture of the US magazine "Time" was distributed. It shows Trump as the "traitor of the year".

Even a few Republicans who are considered moderates jumped to Selensky's side. "Putin started this war. Putin committed war crimes. Putin is the dictator who murdered his opponents," wrote MP Don Bacon on X, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine has been fighting the Russian invasion since February 2022 with financial and military support from European states and the former US administration of Joe Biden. In an abrupt change of policy since taking office, Trump has begun talks with Moscow about ending the fighting, but initially excluded Europe and Ukraine.