Center for Public Integrity: Online Misinformation During the Primaries: A Preview of What’s to Come?

Primary voters have been contending with long lines, technical glitches — and misinformation.

Tuesday’s primaries were no exception. A watchdog group told the Center for Public Integrity that it found a smattering of social media accounts pushing misleading information, such as incorrectly saying some voters should actually go to the polls on Wednesday. Similar posts surfaced on Super Tuesday.

Jesse Littlewood, vice president for campaigns at Common Cause, a nonpartisan nonprofit, said this is the first time the group has monitored misinformation on social media during the primary season, and he had expected to find less of what he terms “cyber suppression.”

“We’re talking dozens to hundreds of pieces of content — not thousands or millions — but even that I’m quite surprised at,” he said.

Littlewood said it’s difficult to tell how much of the bad content comes from bad actors, as opposed to “users who just think it’s funny to say [Joe] Biden voters vote on Wednesday.” …

The Lawyers’ Committee provided examples of tweets from Tuesday that suggested elderly voters should avoid polling places. Littlewood provided separate examples, including some with subsequent posts saying they were joking.

In an interview with Public Integrity, Clarke said social media companies need to do a better job policing “dangerously antidemocratic” content that seeks to discourage voters.

Watchdog groups have been reporting the most misleading and false content to social media companies, which have varying policies about when to remove postings. Littlewood said several of the tweets Common Cause reported as containing false information about voting have been taken down.