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."

A deepfake showed MLK Jr. backing Trump. His daughter calls it ‘vile.’; The Washington Post, November 4, 2024

 Pranshu Verma, The Washington Post; A deepfake showed MLK Jr. backing Trump. His daughter calls it ‘vile.’

"The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter Bernice on Monday condemned an artificially generated video of the Civil Rights leader praising former president Donald Trump, as both parties court Black voters ahead of Election Day.

The video, posted Sunday night on the social network X by a pro-Trump account called MAGA Resource, falsely depicted King urging Black people to vote for Trump, claiming he did “more for the Black community than any other president.” By late Monday it had garnered over 10 million views...

During the 2024 election, AI-generated misinformation has repeatedly gone viral, drawing attention from regulators and observers watching for the effect AI may have on the democratic process. AI experts are unsure how much impact this content has had on changing people’s opinions of the candidates or their choices at the ballot box.

In March, the BBC unearthed dozens of AI-generated false images portraying Black people supporting Trump. X owner Elon Musk, who supports Trump, in July targeted Biden’s replacement in the race, sharing on X an AI-generated audio deepfake of Vice President Kamala Harris falsely celebrating the president’s decision to drop out. The clip was viewed over 100 million times."

Trump’s Puerto Rico fallout is ‘spreading like wildfire’ in Pennsylvania; Politico, October 28, 2024

MEREDITH LEE HILL, MIA MCCARTHY and HOLLY OTTERBEIN , Politico; Trump’s Puerto Rico fallout is ‘spreading like wildfire’ in Pennsylvania

"Donald Trump has a serious Puerto Rico problem — in Pennsylvania.

Many Puerto Rican voters in the state are furious about racist and demeaning comments delivered at a Trump rally. Some say their dismay is giving Kamala Harris a new opening to win over the state’s Latino voters, particularly nearly half a million Pennsylvanians of Puerto Rican descent.

Evidence of the backlash was immediate on Monday: A nonpartisan Puerto Rican group drafted a letter urging its members to oppose Trump on election day. Other Puerto Rican voters were lighting up WhatsApp chats with reactions to the vulgar display and raising it in morning conversations at their bodegas. Some are planning to protest Trump’s rally Tuesday in Allentown, a majority-Latino city with one of the largest Puerto Rican populations in the state.

And the arena Trump is speaking at is located in the middle of the city’s Puerto Rican neighborhood.

“It’s spreading like wildfire through the community,” said Norberto Dominguez, a precinct captain with the local Democratic party in Allentown, who noted his own family is half Republican and half Democratic voters.

“It’s not the smartest thing to do, to insult people — a large group of voters here in a swing state — and then go to their home asking for votes,” Dominguez said.

The timing couldn’t be worse for Trump."

US politicians, celebrities blast Trump-allied comedian for calling Puerto Rico 'garbage'; Reuters, October 28, 2024

Gram Slattery,  Helen Coster and Alexandra Ulmer, Reuters; US politicians, celebrities blast Trump-allied comedian for calling Puerto Rico 'garbage'

"Ed Rosa, 60, a New York resident whose parents were born in Puerto Rico and who attended a Trump rally in May, said he had been planning to vote for Trump, but will now sit the election out after Hinchcliffe's comments. He has removed the Trump campaign signs he had placed in the windows and yard of his North Bronx home.

"It wasn't funny at all," said Rosa. "I really believe it was racist. And I was a very strong supporter of Trump until yesterday."

Americans of Puerto Rican origin or ancestry are an important demographic in some of the competitive swing states that will likely decide the winner of the Nov. 5 election, including Pennsylvania. Both candidates are fighting for the Latino vote, which has trended more Republican in recent years but still leans Democratic.

In a video posted on X on Sunday, Harris reacted directly to Hinchcliffe's comments saying, "Puerto Rico is home to some of the most talented, innovative and ambitious people in our nation.""

As Election Looms, Disinformation ‘Has Never Been Worse’; The New York Times, October 23, 2024

Steven Lee Myers , The New York Times; As Election Looms, Disinformation ‘Has Never Been Worse’

"Numerous factors have contributed to the surge in disinformation, which Ms. Easterly and other officials have warned will continue far beyond Election Day. 

Social media platforms have helped to harden media ecosystems into distinct, disparate partisan enclaves where facts contradicting preconceived narratives are often unwelcome. Artificial intelligence has become an accelerant, making fake or fanciful content ubiquitous online with merely a few keystrokes."

Likenesses Of Michael Douglas, Amy Schumer And Chris Rock Warn Voters Of Election “Deepfakes” In New PSA; Deadline, October 22, 2024

Ted Johnson , Deadline; Likenesses Of Michael Douglas, Amy Schumer And Chris Rock Warn Voters Of Election “Deepfakes” In New PSA

"A new public service announcement featuring likenesses of celebrities including Michael Douglas, Chris Rock and Amy Schumer aims to warn voters about AI deepfakes, including those that could be unleashed on Election Day to try to suppress the vote.

The spot is from RepresentUS, a nonpartisan anti-corruption organization that includes figures like Ed Helms and Jennifer Lawrence on its board."

Elon Musk’s misleading election claims reach millions and alarm election officials; The Washington Post, September 10, 2024

 

Sarah Ellison

, 

Amy Gardner

 and 

Clara Ence Morse

, The Washington Post; Elon Musk’s misleading election claims reach millions and alarm election officials

"The chairman of the board of elections in Montgomery County, Pa., was well acquainted with the regular attendees at his monthly meetings who peddled old, debunked voting conspiracy theories.

But something changed after April 4, the chairman, Neil Makhija, explained in an interview. That was the day Elon Musk retweeted a false claim that as many as 2 million noncitizens had been registered to vote in Texas, Arizona and Pennsylvania.

Suddenly, the same people were coming to the meetings with a new, unsubstantiated theory of voter fraud that appeared to align with Musk’s latest post: They were convinced that droves of noncitizens were voting illegally in their suburban Philadelphia county of nearly a million people."

How to Get Voters the Facts They Need Without a Trump Jan. 6 Trial; The New York Times, July 1, 2024

Andrew Weissmann, The New York Times ; How to Get Voters the Facts They Need Without a Trump Jan. 6 Trial

"The benefit of an evidentiary hearing would be enormous, giving the public at least some information it needs before going to the polls in November. The hearing would permit the airing, in an adversarial proceeding with full due process for Mr. Trump, evidence that goes to the heart of the most profound indictment in this nation’s history."

Watch: Local Sinclair Anchors Read Same Shady Script on Biden’s Age; The New Republic, June 11, 2024

 Hafiz Rashid, The New Republic; Watch: Local Sinclair Anchors Read Same Shady Script on Biden’s Age

"Local television news broadcasters are airing suspiciously similar attackson Joe Biden’s mental acuity and how it will affect the coming election—and it appears to be part of a coordinated effort. 

The Sinclair Broadcast Group owns or operates 185 local television stations across the country, and dozens of their stations aired a segment from national correspondent Matthew Galka citing a Wall Street Journalarticle that makes dubious attacks on Biden’s age and mental awareness. The stations that aired the segment introduced it using startlingly similar, if not identical language, the Popular Information and Public Notice newsletters reported.

It’s not the first time Sinclair, owned by right-wing businessman David D. Smith, has appeared to be running a conservative propaganda campaign. Infamously in 2018, dozens of the company’s TV stations were caught airing an identical editorial about the dangers of biased and false news. This time around, the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal, as well as Murdoch’s cable news stations Fox News and Fox Business, have gotten in on the act...

Earlier this year, Smith purchased The Baltimore Sun, insulting its staff and laying out a vision to steer it in the conservative direction of his TV stations. It’s quite obvious that Smith, Murdoch, and other conservative millionaires and billionaires are taking over as many media outlets as possible to push right-wing political propaganda, with the Biden age article and subsequent TV segments as examples of the end product they want. They’re finding vast opportunities in America’s declining news deserts, as well as the skeletal newspapers gutted by hedge funds and profit-seeking corporations. It doesn’t just bode well for the next election, but also portends a scary future for American democracy for decades to come."

Tests find AI tools readily create election lies from the voices of well-known political leaders; AP, May 31, 2024

ALI SWENSON , AP; Tests find AI tools readily create election lies from the voices of well-known political leaders

"As high-stakes elections approach in the U.S. and European Union, publicly available artificial intelligence tools can be easily weaponized to churn out convincing election lies in the voices of leading political figures, a digital civil rights group said Friday.

Researchers at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Countering Digital Hate tested six of the most popular AI voice-cloning tools to see if they would generate audio clips of five false statements about elections in the voices of eight prominent American and European politicians.

In a total of 240 tests, the tools generated convincing voice clones in 193 cases, or 80% of the time, the group found. In one clip, a fake U.S. President Joe Biden says election officials count each of his votes twice. In another, a fake French President Emmanuel Macron warns citizens not to vote because of bomb threats at the polls."

Supersharers of fake news on Twitter; Science, May 30, 2024

 SAHAR BARIBI-BARTOV , BRIONY SWIRE-THOMPSON , AND NIR GRINBERG  , Science; Supersharers of fake news on Twitter

"Editor’s summary

Most fake news on Twitter (now X) is spread by an extremely small population called supersharers. They flood the platform and unequally distort political debates, but a clear demographic portrait of these users was not available. Baribi-Bartov et al. identified a meaningful sample of supersharers during the 2020 US presidential election and asked who they were, where they lived, and what strategies they used (see the Perspective by van der Linden and Kyrychenko). The authors found that supersharers were disproportionately Republican, middle-aged White women residing in three conservative states, Arizona, Florida, and Texas, which are focus points of contentious abortion and immigration battles. Their neighborhoods were poorly educated but relatively high in income. Supersharers persistently retweeted misinformation manually. These insights are relevant for policymakers developing effective mitigation strategies to curtail misinformation. —Ekeoma Uzogara

Abstract

Governments may have the capacity to flood social media with fake news, but little is known about the use of flooding by ordinary voters. In this work, we identify 2107 registered US voters who account for 80% of the fake news shared on Twitter during the 2020 US presidential election by an entire panel of 664,391 voters. We found that supersharers were important members of the network, reaching a sizable 5.2% of registered voters on the platform. Supersharers had a significant overrepresentation of women, older adults, and registered Republicans. Supersharers’ massive volume did not seem automated but was rather generated through manual and persistent retweeting. These findings highlight a vulnerability of social media for democracy, where a small group of people distort the political reality for many."

Faith in the Supreme Court is down. Voters now say they want changes.; Politico, September 30, 2023

 STEVEN SHEPARD, Politico; Faith in the Supreme Court is down. Voters now say they want changes.

"In addition to the 75 percent of voters — a bipartisan consensus of 81 percent of Democrats, 72 percent of Republicans and 69 percent of independents — who support a binding ethics code, roughly two-thirds of voters support term limits for the justices (68 percent). A similar percentage (67 percent) say the court should televise oral arguments, while 66 percent believe there should be an age limit for the justices. A smaller majority, 60 percent, think there should be an equal number of Democrats, Republicans and independents on the high court."

Rural Washington library could be nation’s first to dissolve after book challenges, reshelving requests; OPB, August 26, 2023

 OPB, Courtney Flatt; Rural Washington library could be nation’s first to dissolve after book challenges, reshelving requests

"Librarians say this would be the first library in the country to dissolve following a book challenge, although many other libraries and school districts across the country and the Northwest have faced similar challenges."

Keeping true to the Declaration of Independence is a matter of ethics; Ventura County Star, July 2, 2023

Ed Jones, Ventura County Star; Keeping true to the Declaration of Independence is a matter of ethics

"How do we keep faith with Jefferson, Franklin and the other founders? Due to the imperfections in human nature, there is no foolproof way, but a good plan would be to have all levels of our government — national, state and local — adopt ethical training similar to that of elective office holders here in California. Periodically, they must participate in ethics training which assumes there are universal ethical values consisting of fairness, loyalty, compassion trustworthiness, and responsibility that transcend other considerations and should be adhered to. This training consists of biannual computer sessions in which they must solve real-life problems based on the aforementioned ethical values.

I believe a real danger for elected officials and voters as well is the idea that certain societal values are so vital, so crucial, that they transcend normal ethical practices. This might be termed an “ends — means philosophy,” the idea that the ends justify the means. Mohandas Gandhi, former leader of India, observed that “the means are the ends in a democracy and good ends cannot come from questionable means.” 

No matter how exemplary our Declaration of Independence and Constitution, we are still relying on human beings to fulfill their promise. Ever since the Supreme Court took the power of judicial review — the power to tell us what the Constitution means and, in the process, affirm certain laws by declaring them constitutional or removing others by declaring them unconstitutional — the judgement of nine people has had a profound effect on our society. Was the Supreme Court correct in 1973 by saying the Ninth Amendment guarantees pregnant women the right to an abortion, or was it correct in 2022 by saying it didn’t?

In the final analysis we must conclude that it will be well-intentioned, ethical citizens and their elected and appointed representatives who will ensure the equitable future of what Abraham Lincoln referred to as our “ongoing experiment in self-government.”"

New ALA Poll Shows Voters Oppose Book Bans; American Libraries, March 24, 2022

American Libraries; New ALA Poll Shows Voters Oppose Book Bans

"A new national poll commissioned by the American Library Association (ALA) released on March 24 shows that seven in 10 voters oppose removing books from public libraries, including majorities of voters across party lines. In addition, 74% of parents of public school children expressed confidence in school libraries and librarians to choose which books are available to children and said books that have been contested should be available on an age-appropriate basis.

The poll, conducted March 1–6, surveyed 1,000 voters and 472 parents of children in public schools. It is the first to view the issue of book bans through the lens of public and school libraries. The poll’s results demonstrate that voters have a high regard for librarians and recognize the critical role libraries play in their communities. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that book bans are far from being a partisan issue; they are opposed by large majorities of voters regardless of personal political affiliation.

“The survey results confirm what we have known and observed: that banning books is widely opposed by most voters and parents,” said ALA President Patricia “Patty” M. Wong in a March 24 statement. “As a career librarian who began in public libraries working with children, I’m thrilled to see that parents have a high degree of confidence in school libraries’ decisions about their collections and very few think that school librarians ignore parents’ concerns. This truly validates the value and integrity of library professionals at a time when many are feeling burned out because of accusations made by small but loud groups.”

More than 330 cases of book bans and challenges were reported to ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) between September 1 and November 30, 2021. The total number of challenges in 2021 was more than double the number of reports from 2020 (156 challenges) and exceeded the overall number of challenges from 2019 (377 challenges).

OIF will announce the full 2021 book challenge totals and its annual Top 10 List of Most Challenged Books on April 4, during National Library Week (April 3–9). Additionally, the annual accounting of book censorship in the US will be released as part of ALA’s State of America’s Libraries 2022 report.

More data points from the poll:

• 71% of respondents oppose efforts to have books removed from their local public libraries, including majorities of Democrats (75%), independents (58%), and Republicans (70%)
• Most voters and parents are confident library workers can make good decisions about what books to include in collections and agree that libraries in their communities do a good job of offering books with broad and diverse viewpoints
• Voters across the political spectrum have a sense of the importance of public libraries (95% of Democrats, 78% of independents, 87% of Republicans) and school libraries (96% of Democrats, 85% of independents, 91% of Republicans)

The poll was conducted by Hart Research Associates and North Star Opinion Research on behalf of ALA. It included 1,000 voters and 472 parents of children in public schools. The sample is demographically and geographically representative of voters and parents in the US. Additional survey findings and methodology can be found on the ALA website.""

State officials rush to shore up confidence in Nov. 3 election as voters express new fears about mail voting; The Washington Post, August 16, 2020

Amy Gardner and Seung Min Kim, The Washington Post; State officials rush to shore up confidence in Nov. 3 election as voters express new fears about mail voting

"Attorneys general from Virginia, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Washington and North Carolina, among others, have begun discussions on how to sue the administration to prevent operational changes or funding lapses that could affect the election. They expect to announce legal action early this week, according to several involved in the talks.

“This is not just terrible policy, but it may be illegal under federal law and other state laws as well,” said Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring (D). “A lot of work is being done literally as we speak over the weekend and at nights to try to figure out what Trump and DeJoy are doing, whether they have already violated or are likely to violate any laws and how we can take swift action to try to stop this assault on our democracy.”"

California makes ‘deepfake’ videos illegal, but law may be hard to enforce; The Guardian, October 7, 2019

Kari Paul, The Guardian; California makes ‘deepfake’ videos illegal, but law may be hard to enforce 

AB 730 makes it illegal to circulate doctored videos, images or audio of politicians within 60 days of an election

"California made it illegal to create or distribute “deepfakes” in a move meant to protect voters from misinformation but may be difficult to enforce.

California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, on Thursday signed legislation that makes it illegal to create or distribute videos, images, or audio of politicians doctored to resemble real footage within 60 days of an election.

Deepfakes are videos manipulated by artificial intelligence to overlay images of celebrity faces on others’ bodies, and are meant to make viewers think they are real."

The Bad Parent Caucus; New York Times, February 15, 2018

Timothy Egan, New York Times; The Bad Parent Caucus

"Let me try another take for you bad parents in office. Pretend you live in a pleasant, well-protected community of like-minded people, and you’re in charge. O.K., you don’t have to pretend. And let’s say there was a natural gas leak every three days in one of the homes in that community, a leak that killed entire families.

Your response would be to pray and do nothing. Or to pray and talk about everything except the gas leak. Or to pray and say you’re powerless to act because the gas company owns you. The response of those suffering would be to take control and kick you out. That’s what we have to do, and will, next November."

The Trumps and the Truth; Wall Street Journal, July 17, 2017

Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal; The Trumps and the Truth

"Even Donald Trump might agree that a major reason he won the 2016 election is because voters couldn’t abide Hillary Clinton’s legacy of scandal, deception and stonewalling. Yet on the story of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, Mr. Trump and his family are repeating mistakes that doomed Mrs. Clinton."

Goodbye Spin, Hello Raw Dishonesty; New York Times, March 3, 2017

Paul Krugman, New York Times; 

Goodbye Spin, Hello Raw Dishonesty

"And the question is, who’s going to stop him?

The moral vacuity of Republicans in Congress, and the unlikelihood that they’ll act as any check on the president, becomes clearer with each passing day. Even the real possibility that we’re facing subversion by agents of a foreign power, and that top officials are part of the story, doesn’t seem to faze them as long as they can get tax cuts for the rich and benefit cuts for the poor.

Meanwhile, Republican primary election voters, who are the real arbiters when polarized and/or gerrymandered districts make the general election irrelevant for many politicians, live in a Fox News bubble into which awkward truths never penetrate."