Rapid spread of election disinformation stokes alarm; The Hill, November 5, 2024

MIRANDA NAZZARO , The Hill; Rapid spread of election disinformation stokes alarm

"The long-lasting falsehoods over the 2020 election have made voters and election watchers more attuned to the potential for disinformation, though experts said recent technology advances are making it more difficult for users to discern fake content.

“We are seeing new formats, new modalities of manipulation of some sort including … this use of generative AI [artificial intelligence], the use of these mock news websites to preach more fringe stories and, most importantly perhaps, the fact that now these campaigns span the entire media ecosystem online,” said Emilio Ferrara, professor of computer science and communication at the University of Southern California

“And they are not just limited to perhaps one mainstream platform like we [saw] in 2020 or even in 2016,” said Ferrara, who co-authored a study that discovered a multiplatform network amplifying “conservative narratives” and former President Trump’s 2024 campaign.

False content has emerged online throughout this election cycle, often in the form of AI-generated deepfakes. The images have sparked a flurry of warnings from lawmakers and strategists about attempts to influence the race’s outcome or sow chaos and distrust in the electoral process."

A torrent of Election Day disinformation is coming. Here’s how to avoid falling for it.; Politico, November 5, 2024

 JOHN SAKELLARIADIS, Politico; A torrent of Election Day disinformation is coming. Here’s how to avoid falling for it.

"Haitian immigrants did not vote multiple times for Vice President Kamala Harris in Georgia, and poll workers in Pennsylvania did not destroy ballots for Trump, though a pair of videos that went viral in the last 10 days would have you think otherwise.

Both were fabrications of Kremlin influence actors, the U.S. intelligence community has said, and late Monday, it released a new statement calling out “additional influence operations” from Russia...

America’s adversaries “likely learned lessons” from the political turmoil that engulfed the U.S. after Election Day in 2020, senior U.S. intelligence officials told reporters last month. That means Russia, China and Iran are likely to amp up their efforts to spread lies and even incite violence between Election Day and inauguration.

One key defense is to refer any pressing questions to your local officials. “The bottom line when it comes to mis- and disinformation is that voters need to go to the source, and the source is your local and your state election officials,” said Marci Andino, the senior director of the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center."

Election Falsehoods Take Off on YouTube as It Looks the Other Way; The New York Times, October 31, 2024

Nico Grant , The New York Times; Election Falsehoods Take Off on YouTube as It Looks the Other Way

"From May through August, researchers at Media Matters tracked 30 of the most popular YouTube channels they identified as persistently spreading election misinformation, to analyze the narratives they shared in the run-up to November’s election.

The 30 conservative channels posted 286 videos containing election misinformation, which racked up more than 47 million views. YouTube generated revenue from more than a third of those videos by placing ads before or during them, researchers found. Some commentators also made money from those videos and other monetized features available to members of the YouTube Partner Program...

Mr. Giuliani, the former New York mayor, posted more false electoral claims to YouTube than any other major commentator in the research group, the analysis concluded...

YouTube, which is owned by Google, has prided itself on connecting viewers with “authoritative information” about elections. But in this presidential contest, it acted as a megaphone for conspiracy theories."

Elon Musk targets Michigan with voter misinformation; The Washington Post, October 21, 2024

 Sarah Ellison, The Washington Post; Elon Musk targets Michigan with voter misinformation

"Two weeks before the presidential election, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) accused billionaire Elon Musk of spreading “dangerous disinformation” about voting in her state after Musk, owner of X and Tesla, shared a post suggesting falsely that the state’s voter rolls, swelled by large numbers of inactive voters, were likely to result in widespread fraud."