Disinformation

Today, Common Cause urged the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to reject a request to legalize gambling on U.S. election outcomes. In a filing in response to the CFTC’s request for public comment, Common Cause emphasized that KalshiEX, LLC (“Kalshi”)’s proposed Congressional control event contract posed “new and profound threats to the integrity of our democracy and our elections.”

Common Cause is pleased to announce that Ishan Mehta has joined Common Cause as the Director of the Media and Democracy Program. Ishan will lead program staff and build on the program started by former FCC Commissioner & Common Cause Special Advisor Michael Copps. He will lead campaigns to engage the public and policy makers on key initiatives including promoting an open internet, fostering competition in the media marketplace, and ensuring broadband access for all Americans.

While the pro-DeSantis ad accurately shares Trump’s words from the Truth Social post, Common Cause disinformation analyst Emma Steiner said she still found the use of AI-generated content in a political campaign "concerning." "In an information environment where voters are faced with a deluge of false and misleading information, AI content has the potential to muddy the waters even more," she said. "My major concern is that there are, as yet, very few ‘rules of the road’ for the use of AI in political campaigns at a particularly fraught time for democracy — and when social media platforms are backing off of enforcement of their own civic integrity policies."

Wisconsin voters of all political views and stripes would be best served by Meagan Wolfe continuing in her current role. The integrity of the 2024 election and its adherence to the law and to fairness and democracy just might depend on it.

"This is an issue that's going to continue to snowball," said Stephen Spaulding, VP of policy and external affairs at Common Cause. "There are tools the FEC could employ, but no question, there also has to be a comprehensive legislative response." Emma Steiner, disinformation analyst at Common Cause, told Axios that the group's biggest concern about generative AI is that platforms "are not willing to act on evolving disinformation narratives. So while [companies] can attempt to drop new policies ... I'm not sure they will make an actual serious attempt to counter the issue."

“What’s happened over the last six years, in particular since the Trump years, is there’s been a systematic attempt to undermine the work of the Wisconsin Elections Commission,” said Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin. “Because it’s apparently not as responsive in a partisan way to the Republicans as they would like.”