USA Today (Op-Ed): Whistleblower confirms what we knew: Facebook blowing it on political disinformation

USA Today (Op-Ed): Whistleblower confirms what we knew: Facebook blowing it on political disinformation

Since the 2020 election season, the disinformation tracking network for Common Cause –  a grassroots group that promotes democracy – has noted and documented a dangerous trend as social media giants Facebook and Twitter appear to have dropped the ball on their commitments to police election disinformation. This week on Capitol Hill, former Facebook product manager and whistleblower Frances Haugen revealed the extent to which her former employer fails in its commitment to prevent the spread of disinformation about elections, confirming what we’ve been documenting.  Change is needed to protect the millions of voters who will go to the polls on Nov. 2 for gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey. Election disinformation is already creeping into these contests, just as it did in California, where it eventually grew to a flood when the recall voting began. Much of the "new" disinformation is recycled directly from the lies around the 2020 election. The lies spread by former President Donald Trump and his allies on some conservative media outlets about the 2020 elections are only growing in volume.

Since the 2020 election season, the disinformation tracking network for Common Cause –  a grassroots group that promotes democracy – has noted and documented a dangerous trend as social media giants Facebook and Twitter appear to have dropped the ball on their commitments to police election disinformation. This week on Capitol Hill, former Facebook product manager and whistleblower Frances Haugen revealed the extent to which her former employer fails in its commitment to prevent the spread of disinformation about elections, confirming what we’ve been documenting.

Change is needed to protect the millions of voters who will go to the polls on Nov. 2 for gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey. Election disinformation is already creeping into these contestsjust as it did in California, where it eventually grew to a flood when the recall voting began. Much of the “new” disinformation is recycled directly from the lies around the 2020 election. The lies spread by former President Donald Trump and his allies on some conservative media outlets about the 2020 elections are only growing in volume.

As a result roughly 1 in 3 Americans – and nearly two-thirds of Republicans – wrongfully believe the 2020 election was “rigged and stolen from Trump,” according to a Yahoo News/YouGov poll conducted from July 30 to Aug. 2.

These lies fueled the Jan. 6 insurrection. Defendants charged for their roles in that day’s horrific events even stated they would cite Trump’s relentless lies in their legal defense.

Yet despite the clear and present danger, these lies have still been widely shared across popular social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

As a result, disinformation purveyors grow more unhinged, reach more people and do more damage to Americans’ trust in our elections. Republican state legislators have harnessed this alternate reality to justify some of the most extremist anti-voter laws we’ve seen in decades – laws that impact Black and brown communities disproportionately. More than 400 bills that restrict voting were introduced in 2021 in all states but one – and 33 laws are already in place – even after federal and state elections and cybersecurity officials called the 2020 election “the most secure in American history.

Social media platforms have long dragged their feet while civil society and good government advocates urged them to get tougher on election disinformation. But in the months since 2020, they appear to have backed off even further. When it comes to reputational damage control, however, they’re more engaged than ever – Facebook recently cut off a well-respected research team shortly after the researchers indicated plans to study the spread of disinformation on the platform about the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Media coverage and both Twitter and Facebook have focused a great deal on battling COVID-19 disinformation, but election disinformation remains a serious threat.

Our research found that in July, 85% of the most shared Facebook links on voting and more than half of individual links on that platform with the most engagement came from right-wing outlets that frequently spread disinformation on voting and elections. We identified numerous examples on Twitter and Facebook of content that would have been removed or labeled in January – but was not as of July (the timeframe of our analysis). It was left active to be shown potentially to millions of people.

How much of this content exists is known only by the platforms themselves. But it seems they have made a quiet choice, with significant consequences, to walk back even the minimal levels of enforcing their election disinformation policies. Recently, Twitter declined to remove a congressional candidate’s call to “execute” elections officials involved in supposed 2020 election fraud (of which no evidence exists).

Such statements fuel the fire that has created unprecedented levels of threats to elections officials and workers. (Later Twitter did suspend the account for violating Twitter rules.)

Facebook and Twitter claim to take firm stances against election disinformation, but our analysis found that the platforms seem more adamant about removing health-related disinformation and less responsive to democracy disinformation, especially when it comes from elected officials or candidates.

Trump has returned to the rally circuit repeating the lies about the 2020 election. Facebook is even allowing Trump to evade its ban through his super PAC, running ads seen by millions that continue to falsely claim that the 2020 election was rigged.

When platforms retreat on their civic responsibility, they’re giving bad actors more leeway to spread lies that sow distrust in our elections and create the conditions that lead to political violence. When it comes to election disinformation, there is no “off year.”

Trust in our democratic process is at a tipping point. A slim majority of Americans say it’s at least “somewhat likely” that an election in the next few years will be overturned by lawmakers because their party lost, according to a recent CNN poll. Facebook and Twitter must shift course dramatically on their own or Congress must step in. There is no time to lose.

Jesse Littlewood is the vice president of campaigns at Common Cause, where he manages a large-scale monitoring and rapid response program on disinformation related to democracy and elections.