Polymarket found itself at the center of a scandal due to a social media post in which it attributed advice to young entrepreneurs from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos: to work in traditional companies before starting their own business.
Bezos quickly denied these claims. The exchange thus brought attention back to concerns about the recurring use of social media by prediction markets to spread unverified news and misinformation.
A Polymarket post draws a response from Bezos
On Thursday, Polymarket published a post on X spreading the news that Bezos had recently advised "aspiring Gen Z entrepreneurs" to start their careers in "real-world jobs" such as at McDonald's or Palantir before starting a business.
A few hours later, the founder of Amazon responded to the post, stating that he had never made such statements and wondering what prompted Polymarket to invent such claims.
Amid the controversies that the exchange has quickly attracted, a video emerged in which Bezos gives a speech at the Italian Tech Week, offering advice to young entrepreneurs. However, the conversation dates back nearly three months, and Bezos never mentioned the companies cited by Polymarket.
"I always advise young people to work at a best practice company, where you can learn a lot about the fundamental basics," he said, adding, "I founded Amazon when I was 30, not 20. Those ten extra years of experience really improved Amazon's chances of success."
The events of this week have been particularly significant because Bezos took the trouble to publicly refute Polymarket's statements.
At the same time, the history of prediction markets spreading misinformation on social media is raising growing concerns.
Platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi are under close scrutiny for publishing prominent news that distorts facts or is completely false, covering topics ranging from sports betting to geopolitical tensions.
Social media users have quickly highlighted concrete examples.
Do prediction markets amplify global misinformation?
In recent weeks, international tensions have increased significantly. Examples include the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, widespread protests in Iran, and clashes between the United States and Europe over the possible acquisition of Greenland.
These events have generated a wave of betting on prediction markets. These platforms have also used social media to spread related alerts that did not accurately reflect reality.
An example occurred earlier this month when Polymarket published a "breaking" post claiming that the Iranian regime's security forces had lost control of some of the country's largest cities.
Although the Iranian government is facing internal challenges, it still maintains control thanks to the army and security forces. Despite the post, which contained controversial or inaccurate claims, it still garnered nearly 7 million views, 17,000 likes, and 2,000 reposts.
Most of the comments criticized the betting platform, accusing it of being a fake news site.
Kalshi published a similar post regarding tensions between the United States and Denmark over Greenland. The prediction market claimed that the two states had formed a working group to discuss American interest in purchasing Greenland. The post reached 2.8 million views.
Although the White House supported this reconstruction, Denmark provided a different version, stating that they simply "agreed to address American security concerns regarding Greenland."
Neither Polymarket nor Kalshi immediately responded to BeInCrypto's request for comment.
Similar reports have emerged regarding Kalshi affiliates who allegedly published sports fake news on their social channels.
According to Front Office Sports, although they have been called out on these false posts, both Kalshi and Polymarket do not intend to give up the use of affiliate badges.
As prediction markets are expected to grow exponentially in the coming year, their use of social media to share unverified or misleading information is attracting increasing attention.