The like button has changed on X, but only on these Election-related topics

Be wary of candidates claiming victory too soon. Voters may be eager to hear presidential election results as soon as possible but, according to election experts, a count is rarely official the day votes are cast, since the process for validating, processing, and counting every single ballot takes time.

Media outlets — and candidates — may call an election early, based on projected figures and the size of the margin between the candidates in various battleground states. But that doesn't mean every vote has been tabulated yet, especially in states that don't allow mail-in, absentee, or early-cast ballots to be processed before election day. Be careful to validate the sources of any official calls that may circulate online. Learn how election winners are called by reputable organizations, like the  Associated Press.

Individuals are encouraged to follow the election bodies in key battleground states for the most accurate information and official counts: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

X users can enjoy a patriotic addition to their daily scroll, as Election Day revs up and our feeds fill with more and more content — and potential misinformation.

The like button now spins into a star-burst-filled ballot box animation when tapped, but — unlike the claims of some online — only on posts that use the site's official #ElectionDay and #Election2024 tags, which also sport the same patriotic ballot box emoji. And it's not the doing of CEO Elon Musk's Trump campaign sympathies.

The animation is merely an eye-catching part of the platform's live Election Day hub, and a common marketing option used by brands, campaigns, and holidays in the past. That context was left out of several viral tweets, in which some users erroneously credited the new animation to Musk's recent support of presidential candidate Donald Trump and in celebration of the former president's "current lead," they claimed. Posts alleging the animation was a pro-Trump move, however, weren't citing official election day numbers, but select polling figures posted by Atlas Intel, a data and forecasting company, last week.

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X's bot farms at large picked up on the engagement, as well, with multiple accounts posting the same copied text in order to gather likes and reposts from fellow users: "I thought this is fake 🙀, but it’s damn true Elon Musk has changed the like button for the United State Elections 🇺🇸."

Others rode the claim that Musk made the animation for Trump's campaign purely to farm likes, combining the official tags with pro-Trump messaging and "Repost for Kamala, Like for Trump" engagement bait.

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Others, meanwhile, used the election hashtags as they normally would: for memes.

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