When Trump's victory became clear, online claims of election fraud quieted

By the time the polls opened on Election Day, baseless claims of voter fraud had been building on social media for months, fueling doubts about the integrity of the election. 

Posts proliferated on X and other platforms pointing to hiccups like technical issues with voting machines, power outages and spelling errors on ballots as examples of a supposedly brewing conspiracy. And at 4:30 p.m. on Election Day, former President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that there was "a lot of talk about massive cheating" in Pennsylvania — which officials said had "no factual basis whatsoever." 

But as the votes were tallied and it became clear that Trump was on his way to a decisive victory, the deluge of posts questioning the integrity of the election fell to a trickle, researchers say.