Election Misinformation

Election misinformation refers to false or misleading information specifically related to the electoral process. Unlike general political misinformation, which can encompass a broad range of subjects and opinions, election misinformation is narrower in scope and often easier to fact-check. It usually contradicts objective facts, such as the date an election will take place, the requirements for voter eligibility, or whether a particular candidate is alive or deceased. In most democracies, intentional attempts to disenfranchise voters through false claims are serious criminal offenses.

Social media platforms and other online networks play a critical role in enabling the spread of election misinformation. These platforms have algorithms and distribution networks that, when they are content-neutral, disseminate information without consideration of its truthfulness. While this is effective for spreading valid information, it also makes these platforms susceptible to the rapid distribution of misinformation, which can disenfranchise voters by feeding them incorrect details about how, when, or where to vote.

Design thinking offers limited solutions in this context. Platform characteristics like user interface or community guidelines have only marginal capacity to prevent the spread of incorrect info. Limitations on the availability of tools that support scaled abuse (like APIs) may have some impact, but it isn't clear that scale is at the heart of this issue. Instead the key distinction between election information and misinformation has to lie in content analysis, since the only difference between a "get out the vote" campaign, and "get out the vote a week late" campaign is the date on which they encourage people to go to the polls. The focus should thus be on identifying and removing or suppressing false information related to elections, as the platform's structural elements are generally not the primary contributors to the success of misinformation campaigns of this sort.