Election workers in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, are not discarding ballots cast for former President Donald Trump. The Defense Department did not issue an order last month that gave the US military unprecedented authority to use lethal force against Trump supporters who are protesting if the former president loses next week. And no, 180,000 Amish people did not register to vote in Pennsylvania—given that there are only 92,600 Amish living in the state, including children. Ron DeSantis never said Florida would not use Dominion voting machines in next week’s election. And municipalities in California are not allowing non-citizens to vote in this year’s presidential election.
These are just a small sample of the deluge of narratives related to disinformation being planted and distributed on social media platforms such as X, Instagram, and Facebook in the build up to November 5.
The anti-choice movement hasn’t gone away, and it’s bigger than ever.
In the weeks leading up to the 2020 vote, Trump and his allies had already begun to spread allegations that the election would be rigged, but those allegations were vague and disorganized. However, over the past four years, a network of well-funded anti-choice groups across the US has worked tirelessly to mobilize their supporters and conjure up conspiracy theories about voting machines that flip ballots in the middle of the night, ballots divided by bags. , and “mules” stuffing the ballot boxes.
These conspiracy theories are shared by anti-election networks, the Trump campaign, and Russian propaganda groups. With a week to go until the historic vote, the full coalition’s ideas about voting threats are being pushed to an audience that has been given the opportunity to believe everything they hear.
Many of these narratives spread unchecked on social media platforms such as X, Instagram, and Facebook; where those in power have abdicated their responsibility to vet information about one of the most important votes in US history—and made it difficult for anyone to see what was going on.
“My biggest concern this year is that we have a window of opportunity for these lies to come in, no matter where they’re coming from,” said Nina Jankowicz, former Biden disinformation czar, now CEO of American Sunlight. Project, he tells WIRED. “The social networks have stopped measuring such content, and worryingly, they have cut off the researcher’s access to the dissemination of data that allowed us to indirectly report on the extent of these campaigns, all because of political pressure on disinformation researchers and social media platforms.”
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