Elon Musk’s Pro-Trump Website Accused of Shady Data Collection

Elon Musk recently launched a political committee running ads on Google in an effort to get convicted gangster Donald J. Trump back in the White House. And CNBC has a new report on the online tactics Musk’s America PAC is using in the battlegrounds that will decide who wins in November. It’s sketchy as hell, to say the least.

One of the ads run by America PAC, which is available on YouTube, shows a man lying on a bed watching an assassination attempt on Trump after a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The man appears to be texting a friend, sending a video of Trump being shot with the confusing message, “This is out of control!! How do I begin?”

A friend on the other end of the phone replies with a text, “Register to vote! It’s easy!” and a link to the America PAC website.

What happens when a real person goes to America PAC’s website and tries to vote? That all depends on where that person lives, as CNBC revealed on Friday.

Anyone who clicks on “Register to Vote” on America PAC’s website is greeted with a form with just two inputs: email address and zip code. And depending on what zip code the user types in, they’ll be taken to a link that either redirects them to their voter registration page or to a new form that collects a ton of confidential information.

Gizmodo tested itself, typing in a Southern California zip code first, which immediately directed us to a new page that had a link to the state of California. But when we typed in a Wisconsin zip code, one of the dozen or so that Trump must win to defeat Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, we were taken to a new form that asked for our address, date of birth, and phone number. , as you can see in the picture below.

Ironically, after filling all that out and clicking “continue,” users see a message that reads: “Thank you for taking the first step to register to vote in WISCONSIN. Please fill out the form below and we will help you complete your registration.”

But there is no form below to “complete” your registration. This is all we saw when we tested the website on Friday:

Nothing. Nada. There is no way to register to vote in Wisconsin, at least not from this website. All we did was provide information to Musk’s team. And that’s when it gets even more complicated, according to CNBC. No one knows for sure what Musk and his cronies will do with this information, but the safe money seems to be betting on the idea that Musk will help coordinate the grassroots messaging campaigns of Trump supporters.

How is it legal for Musk’s group to link to the Trump campaign when election law expressly prohibits super PACs from linking to the person they are trying to help? US regulators and the Federal Election Commission recently ruled that door-to-door canvassing is exempt from communications restrictions. That means the Trump campaign can talk to all these dark money groups and coordinate their messages as they push to get Trump voters to the polls.

“Coordination is incredibly important: it ensures that the PAC’s activities are more profitable for the campaign, and it frees up campaign funds to spend on other things,” Brendan Fischer, campaign finance expert at watchdog Documented told CNBC. “I suspect that the PAC’s ability to coordinate its data-driven campaign activities with the Trump campaign has made it more attractive to donors.”

Trump and Harris are running neck-and-neck in the polls, a big boost for Democrats as Biden has been outpaced by Trump for months. But it’s still counting and every last voter in swing states will count. That’s why Musk and his team are clearly targeting those people in Arizona, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to make sure Trump voters and Trump wannabes hear their message.

Somewhat ironically, an attempt to contact America PAC through the form on its website was met with the message, “Your submission failed due to an error.” But if you have America PAC and want to talk to us, we’d love to hear from you. Especially about why you’re trying to re-elect such a racist piece to the White House.