Social Media Braces for a Deluge of Voter Misinformation
Civil rights groups say tech companies aren’t keeping up with increasingly sophisticated false messages.
Three days before the Nov. 6, 2018, midterm elections, conservative pundit Ann Coulter sent a tweet to her 2.1 million followers. “CONSERVATIVES! Remember to vote Nov 6!” she wrote. “Liberals: Your polling day is Nov 7.”
The tweet was no joke, at least not to Twitter Inc., which removed it for violating its policy against spreading voting misinformation. But the damage was done: A call from a verified, prominent American citizen to keep Democrats from the polls circulated for hours before Twitter was able to stop it. That’s just one example of voter suppression efforts that civic groups worry will flood social media sites before the Nov. 3 presidential election and decrease enthusiasm, which could already be dampened by pandemic fears and racial tensions.