Ask yourself a big question? Knowing that controversy and creating national platforms where fringe extremists, conspiracy theorists spreading toxic misinformation, can routinely communicate and “gather” virtually, where advertising rates are direct function of the resulting increase in user activity, exactly how strong is the commitment of companies like Meta, TikTok, Twitter, etc. to wipe these democracy destroyers off their platforms? Are they truly supporting the First Amendment or purposely distorting their reasoning to hide behind it? To keep those dollars rolling in?
And if foreign bots, notably from Russia and China, contribute to the disinformation that encourage more user hours, how motivated are they really in stemming that election interference? Common sense will give you the obvious answer. Look as if you are doing something, have policies you can point to, but try and avoid rocking that cash cow boat as much as you can! Pretty much what former Facebook (Meta) employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen told Congress last October.
Given that there has been no significant proof of any meaningful voting manipulation in the almost two years since those allegations surfaced after the 2020 election, you would think those voices would have been subdued by now. It turns out that only attempt at voting manipulation have been from Trump’s MAGA crowd, including efforts to purloin access to voting machines in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Colorado combined with efforts to substitute MAGA electors for those actually voted into official status, etc..
But if anything, those voices over “rigged elections” are louder than ever, even between MAGA candidates and before the elections even take place. So many GOP candidates for elected office, stumbling all over themselves for a Trump endorsement, still preach the inane proposition that Trump, not Biden, won the 2020 presidential election. Hailing Trump as the victor is all about the base, without which most GOP candidates could not be elected. They seem to adhere to the maximum, if you say it enough, it will be true. Donald Trump has stated the 2020 election was stolen well over 100 times. And continues to do so. Distrust of voting integrity is now rampant.
This is great for an abstract discussion of voting integrity, but the on-the-ground burden placed on election officials, from death threats to the cost of setting up voting integrity programs to assure voters, absorbs valuable time away from preparing for an actual election and costs taxpayers money that should be unnecessary. Some states have even been unable even to fill the top slot over state and local voting administration. Writing for the September 12th Los Angeles Times, Ali Swenson and Julie Carr Smyth write about what some states are doing to negate the falsehoods… and the barriers they face in dealing with social media platforms which resist eliminating these purveyors of conspiracy theories:
“Some states and counties are devoting more money or staff to a problem that has grown more concerning since the 2020 presidential election and the false claims that it was marred by widespread fraud. A barrage of misinformation in some places has led election officials to complain that Facebook parent Meta, Twitter and other social media platforms aren’t doing enough to help them tackle the problem… ‘Our voters are angry and confused. They simply don’t know what to believe,’ Lisa Marra, elections director in Cochise County, Ariz., told a U.S. House committee last month. ‘We’ve got to repair this damage.’
“Many election offices are taking matters into their own hands, starting public outreach campaigns to provide accurate information about how elections are run and how ballots are cast and counted. That means traveling town halls in Arizona, ‘Mythbuster Mondays’ in North Carolina and animated videos in Ohio emphasizing the accuracy of election results. Connecticut is hiring a dedicated election misinformation analyst.
“Still, the task is daunting. Although Oregon has put additional money into joining a national #TrustedInfo2022 campaign, misinformation continues to reach social media and force local election officials to respond, taking time from other duties… Ben Morris, spokesperson for the Oregon secretary of state’s office, cited recent posts that Meta allowed to remain on Facebook despite his office’s providing evidence that they were false. One alleged a candidate’s name had been improperly censored from election fliers. Another falsely asserted that one party was purposefully denied access to a local elections office… ‘Meta’s policies are too limited to address the misinformation we see at a state and local level,’ Morris said. ‘Their policies cover big national issues, but false posts about a county clerk or a state law aren’t removed. When you realize this could be happening at Meta’s scale, it’s deeply concerning.’
“The disconnect may be that Facebook policies ‘prioritize provably false claims that are timely, trending and consequential.’ All three posts Morris referred to were presumably too localized to have ‘trended,’ though he contends they were still damaging… They also were posted by candidates for office, a group that includes a growing number of election deniers and whose speech social media companies strive to protect.
“Meta spokesperson Corey Chambliss said the policies exempt much of what politicians say online because of ‘Facebook’s fundamental belief in free expression, respect for the democratic process, and the belief that, especially in mature democracies with a free press, political speech is the most scrutinized speech there is.’… But he said those protections are waived in cases of direct election interference or threats of violence or intimidation.
“In Arizona’s largest county, Maricopa, candidates shielded by those protections have liberally posted misinformation during this year’s election cycle. That has prompted officials to aggressively condemn the false narratives themselves.” Doubtless, our Founding Fathers did not envision election deniers, masquerading as “patriots,” using the First Amendment to aid them in overturning legitimate election results. The efforts of major social media platforms to stop this serious erosion of voting integrity is obviously underwhelming. But then, we might simply prefer to subsidize those social media platforms and the billionaires who own them.
I’m Peter Dekom, and since democratic elections were the basis of the Constitution itself, not to mention the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, in the balancing act between secure elections and the use of the First Amendment to undermine election integrity, clearly election integrity must prevail.
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