As Americans watch election results continue to trickle in, voters have taken to social media to share their confusion and anxiety, and have often been met with lies and misinformation.
The heightened spread of disinformation over social media can have negative consequences on America’s democracy, according to Scott Ruston, a research scientist with Arizona State University’s Knowledge Enterprise.
“In many ways, the fundamental underpinnings of democratic society are at risk because they depend so much on willing, informed citizen participation and expression of political will,” Ruston said in a Q&A from ASU. “If the basis of those decisions made by the citizens is corrupted by disinformation, then that’s a hijacking of domestic society.”
Disinformation is when a person intentionally spreads information they know is false or misleading.
Between March and September, more than 120,000 pieces of content were removed from Facebook and Instagram for violating voter interference policies, and an additional 150 million pieces of content on Facebook were labeled as false information, according to Guy Rosen, VP of Integrity for the social platforms, in an explanation piece for Facebook.
Here is some of the recent misinformation that has been circulating on social media.
Fake Twitter accounts claim election results
As Arizona landed in the spotlight among the last few states to declare a winner in the presidential race, false claims and multiple fake accounts cropped up on Twitter.
The accounts commonly replicate the name and style of The Associated Press, the oldest and largest American news organization, and a standard-bearer in accurate election calls. The AP has called races nationwide on its Twitter account dedicated to politics.
AP is one of the few news outlets to have called the state of Arizona in favor of former Vice President Joe Biden.
Confusion over use of Sharpies to fill out ballots
In Arizona’s Maricopa County, a Facebook post gained traction after claiming that poll workers were providing voters with Sharpies to purposefully invalidate ballots.
Thursday evening, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced on Twitter that his office was “confident that the use of Sharpie markers did not result in disenfranchisement for Arizona voters.”
The post has since been flagged by Facebook as spreading false information.
Megan Gilbertson, communications officer for Maricopa County Elections Department, told Cronkite News that Sharpies are used for their fast-drying ink because when a voter “is marking the ballot, we need to make sure that when they put it through that precinct-based tabulator that the ink does not smudge.”
Gilbertson added that the ballots are formatted with offset columns, so if the ink from the Sharpie bleeds through “it would not impact tabulations.”
Protests at the Maricopa County Elections Department
Following the confusion and misinformation regarding the use of Sharpies on ballots, protesters gathered outside the Maricopa County Elections Department.
Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Prescott, has joined protesters since Wednesday and spread false claims on Twitter about the ballot counting, going as far to tweet “any claim Biden has won is illegitimate,” and that “we cannot accept the theft of the presidency.”
The Maricopa County Elections Department responded to the protests on Twitter Thursday, saying “the eyes of the nation are on Maricopa County,” and it is important to balance the protesters’ First Amendment rights with the safety of the election workers.
Friday, conspiracy theories began spreading among protesters that ballots were being brought into the election center in Maricopa County. These claims are false, and the boxes being carried at the election center contained camera equipment used by media stations, according to reporters on the scene.
There has been no evidence of voter fraud or widespread issues with ballots in Arizona.
Twitter labels numerous Trump tweets as misinformation
Numerous tweets from President Donald Trump have been flagged on Twitter as being “misleading about an election or other civic process.” Trump’s false claims include that he has “easily” won the election, that there has been widespread fraud in the states called for Biden and that ballots are still coming in after Election Day.
Trump has not won the election, as the national race has not been called. Additionally, there have been no credible reports of widespread or systemic voter fraud, and while votes are still being counted, a Maricopa County statement said this is because “an accurate vote takes time” and does not mean the ballots were cast after Election Day.
Combating misinformation moving forward
Maricopa County and the state of Arizona provides resources for those with questions about their ballot status or how ballots are counted.
Anyone can watch a live stream of votes being counted within the Maricopa County Elections Department, provided by the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office. Viewers can see the inside of the signature verification rooms, the early ballot processing rooms and the inside of the Ballot Tabulation Center for 30-minute sessions.
Arizona voters who cast their ballot early or cast a provisional ballot can check the status of their ballot online. Ballots cast by voters on Election Day are all counted and therefore not tracked.
This article appears in Nov 5-11, 2020.
Friday, conspiracy theories began spreading among protesters that ballots were being brought into the election center in Maricopa County http://www.karelsantralservisii.com
I strongly suspect a generous proportion of voters have forgotten the basic workings of American Government. While I can’t force anyone to go back to high school, perhaps this is a project for media. So many more people voted in this election and I think we need a way to keep people engaged.
One good way to keep people engaged is to give them better candidates. This election for President, we had the same old shit–a “who’s uglier” anti-beauty contest between two sad-sack corporation-friendly Old White Guys, both of whom were credibly accused of sexual assault , both of whom were running on nothing more than entitlement and privilege, both of whom have demonstrably racist and corrupt public records, both of whom were multiple long-time losers (presidential elections for one, bankruptcies for the other), both of whom are clearly suffering from dementia, and both of whom should have retired a long time ago.
“Luckily” (if you can call it that), the one who appears to have won is significantly less toxic and offensive than the other, so the anti-beauty contest seems to have worked, within its profound limitations. But honestly, the sooner Creepy Joe gets out the way, the sooner Kamala Harris becomes president, and the sooner we can get on with the business of “Making America Great” for *ALL*, not just for white people.
Such nice terms for censorship. The elitists have contempt for the ignorant white trash and their lack of ability to manipulate the “truth” the way they do. Any thing the elitist don’t like is russian disinformation such as hunter biden’s lap top which russia had nothing to do with or showing pictures of donald trump with jeffry epstein and not showing pictures of bubba clinton with epstein. Elitists say why lie when you can get the same results by not telling the truth or manipulating it. Such as not mentioning bubba’s flights to epsteins orgy island and daily mention trump’s tenuous connection to epstein. Npr say it will no longer report on biden’s laptop or in 2016 nbc saying it will no longer report on content of hillary clinton’s e-mails just on how wikileaks got them. If it is unpleasant to elite media spike story or report it once and ignore it. If they want you to know report it continuously ad nauseum. Msdnc refused to put on its nightly shows green party candidate jill stein. They only put on gary johnson when it looked like he was taking votes away from trump. Elite media what they don’t want you to know is news what they want you to know is propaganda. Elite media motto you don’t have to lie to not tell the truth!
It has become a fact of human evolution that millions of people want to be told what to think, how to act and when to dive headfirst into deep piles of BS. I am tired of hearing that both sides do this because there is only one side that lies and lies and gets better at lying while playing the victim. I no longer accept that they can tell me that they lose their “freedom” by taking away the rights and endanger the health, safety and wellbeing of other citizens.
Fox News IS the mainstream elite media in this country, while MSNBC just let go any paid commentator who has had contact with the Biden transition.
One month later we can see what a joke this article is. Widespread and systemic voter fraud began at 1 am on Nov 7, 2016. But just wait until they play the Trump card.