Elon Musk uses paid feature to boost his anti-Zohran Mamdani views on X before NYC election

Elon Musk may not be a New York City resident, but he has strong feelings about the city's mayoral race, and he's using his social media platform X to influence voters.

Up to 2 million New York City residents are expected to vote in the mayoral election, which takes place on Tuesday, Nov. 4. The city's mayoral race has garnered a lot of national attention because of the charismatic State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old Democratic Socialist, who defeated former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary over the summer. Cuomo is now running as an independent against Mamdani in the general election, with Mamdani as the official Democratic nominee.

Tech companies like DoorDash and Airbnb have already weighed in on the race, donating millions of dollars to defeat Mamdani.

And on Monday, the day before the election, the world's richest man made it clear who he's backing: Cuomo. In addition, Musk is urging conservative voters not to split the vote by backing the Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa, who has a much more difficult path to victory. 

In essence, Musk is backing Cuomo simply to defeat Mamdani, and he's using a paid promotion feature to push his endorsement into users' feeds.

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"Remember to vote tomorrow in New York!" Musk posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, which he acquired in 2022. "Bear in mind that a vote for Curtis is really a vote for Mumdumi or whatever his name is. VOTE CUOMO!"

For this post, Musk utilized a paid feature on X that allows Premium X users to "Boost" their posts for added reach. This is different from the X algorithm organically showing a user posts based on their interests and engagement. Boosted posts can also be used for advertisements, but according to X's guidelines, "If you decide to use Boosted to advertise, those boosted posts must also self-identify as an advertisement" and comply with all X ad policies.

X itself does not label a boosted post that shows up in a user's feed as a paid promotion. 

How do we know Musk is boosting his post?

Normally, paid political advertisements face increased scrutiny and disclosure requirements online. (Thank you, Cambridge Analytica and Mark Zuckerberg.)

However, while Musk is taking advantage of a paid feature, it's unclear if he is actually paying to boost his post on X. After all, he owns the platform. Even so, Musk appears to be using the paid boost feature to promote his Cuomo endorsement and attack on Mamdani.

How do we know? Mashable has previously reported on Musk's X and its lack of disclosure for some advertisements. In addition, boosted posts often have a noticeable tell: X strips those posts of a timestamp when showing the post in a user's feed.

Musk's boosted post appears on users' timelines without a timestamp, a typical sign of a boosted post. Credit: Screenshot from X

When Musk's post shows up in a user's feed, users can click on the ellipses button on the right-hand corner of the post, where they will see a list of options. One of those options is a page labeled "Why am I seeing this?"

After clicking that option, X finally discloses that the reason you're seeing that post is because "Elon Musk boosted their post."

After clicking through layers of options, X will finally disclose that Musk is boosting the post. Credit: Mashable screenshot

Musk's endorsement in the election shouldn't be a surprise.

The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has embraced right-wing politics and openly campaigned for Donald Trump during the presidential election in 2024. Musk also worked with the Trump administration through DOGE.

Now, Musk appears to be trying to influence the New York City mayoral race by utilizing a paid promotion feature that pushes his endorsement on users without an obvious disclosure.

As of this writing, Mamdani maintains a strong lead in the polls.