Social media feeds are awash with an unprecedented flood of AI-driven disinformation ahead of November’s US midterm elections, according to experts, who warn many posts are probably “slipping through the cracks”.
uncertain
posts → drive → cracks
As tens of millions of Americans prepare to cast their vote, social media companies have scaled back their efforts to protect voters from lies meant to manipulate elections.
asserted
companies → prepare → elections
While the backlash against Facebook after the Cambridge Analytica scandal prompted social media giants to bolster their trust and safety operations, a counter-backlash from the right over fears of speech restrictions – which intensified after Elon Musk’s takeover of X, formerly Twitter, and the election of Donald Trump in 2024 – has led to significant layoffs from relevant teams.
asserted
which → prompt → teams
Artificial intelligence has made it easier than ever to launch a disinformation campaign.
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it → make → campaign
And platforms are increasingly relying on AI, rather than human intervention, to respond.
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platforms → rely → AI
“You can run an information operation now with quality that was impossible in 2016 for super, super cheap,” said Frances Haugen, a former Facebook data engineer turned whistleblower and advocate for transparency and accountability in big tech.
asserted
Haugen → run → tech
Operatives playing dirty tricks can get around content moderation rules “because you can just keep tweaking the post a little bit each time you create them, and some of them are going to get through”, she said.
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she → play → them
Campaigns from Pennsylvania to Texas have been scrambling to respond to lies that have surfaced, and spread rapidly, online.
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that → scramble → lies
Unlike previous elections, they find themselves in a quandary: who, exactly, do they turn to when fabrications and falsehoods propagate?
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fabrications → find → quandary
Meta Platforms, the Facebook and Instagram owner, and X did not respond to requests for comment.
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Platforms → respond → comment
YouTube, owned by Google, said all its users are subject to the same guidelines.
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users → own → guidelines
James Talarico, the high-flying Democrat running for US Senate in Texas, took time off from campaigning earlier this month to recover from the flu.
asserted
Talarico → fly → flu
But many social media feeds hosted another – false – reason for his absence: that he was supposedly being treated at a mental health facility in Ohio.
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he → host → Ohio
The claim was a complete fabrication, pushed by a rightwing “provocateur” who published a deceptively edited phone call with a hospital staffer.
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who → push → staffer
Talarico’s campaign released security-camera video showing him at home in Texasand the candidate publicly clarified he had never even been to Ohio.
asserted
he → release → Ohio
But the lie circulated – and was stoked – for several days.
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lie → circulate → days
The Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas (DDIA) tracked its propagation, and how the misinformation mutated as it was picked up by conservative Spanish-language media.
asserted
it → track → media
What began as a viral lie about Talarico being hospitalized in Ohio became a false claim in Spanish that he had attempted suicide.
uncertain
he → begin → suicide
The case “illustrates a recurring challenge in countering election disinformation”, DDIA’s researchers wrote.
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researchers → illustrate → disinformation
Lies evolve and shift as they spread, “making the original correction insufficient to address every version of the story”.
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correction → evolve → story
Social media platforms enforce their terms of service “more congruently” in English than other languages including Spanish, according to Roberta Braga, the founder and executive director of DDIA.
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platforms → enforce → DDIA
“There’s a lot less guardrails in place from the companies to deal with Spanish language, especially now that they’ve walked back a lot of their own investments in content moderation, and they’ve moved toward doing community-centered content moderation, like Community Notes-style things,” said Braga.
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Braga → ’ → things
“Now that they’re using AI to do a lot of the content moderation, even more is likely slipping through the cracks.”
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more → use → cracks
Ken Paxton, Talarico’s Republican opponent in Texas, also launched a campaign advert earlier this year using AI-generated footage of Talarico – a Presbyterian seminarian – supposedly rewriting the Bible.
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Talarico → launch → Bible
“I think Texans are fed up with these kind of lies in our politics,” Talarico told NBC News in September.
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Talarico → think → September
“These AI deepfake ads don’t add anything to our civic discourse.
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ads → add → discourse
They don’t do anything to elucidate the choice that’s in front of voters.
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that → do → voters
Online hit squads behind election disinformation once operated on the fringes.
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squads → operate → fringes
Today, their work may be amplified by official government sources.
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work → amplify → sources
When viral posts on X and rightwing blogs claimed that an undocumented immigrant arrested in central Pennsylvania was an active field worker and canvasser for Democrat Janelle Stelson’s congressional campaign, staffers set the truth sprinting, trying to to catch up with a lie.
asserted
staffers → claim → lie
As they did, however, an official statement from the Department of Homeland Security amplified the claim.
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statement → do → claim
“It’s unbelievable that Janelle Stelson would employ an illegal alien to work on a congressional campaign, let alone a pervert who exposed himself in public,” declared Charles Wall, the deputy director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
asserted
Wall → ’ → Immigration
But the campaign released records showing that the immigrant, Chimaobim Adedayo Igbojekwe, had no paid position on the campaign, despite an initial police incident report stating that Igbojekwe claimed to be a campaign worker.
asserted
Igbojekwe → release → report
They hold the claim provably false.
uncertain
claim → hold → ?
The campaign of Stelson’s opponent, Republican congressman Scott Perry, continues to run ads with the claim.
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campaign → continue → claim
The Stelson campaign sent cease-and-desist letters to the media.
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campaign → send → media
A Fox News reporter took down a post on X about the indecent exposure arrest.
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reporter → take → arrest
Activists at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington launched a complaint accusing the DHS of violating the Hatch Act, which limits the political activities of government employees.
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which → launch → employees
“Trump has made clear that he intends to interfere in the elections,” said Nora Benavidez, a civil rights and free speech attorney with Free Press, a non-profit advocating for media independence.
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Benavidez → make → independence
Trump “has leveraged agencies across the federal government, whether it’s the US Postal Service or DHS – you name it”, she added.
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she → leverage → it
…and 20 more, not listed.
The Aporia
