Social media companies have never been particularly good at policing their platforms for inaccuracies and deliberate lies, but ahead of another nation-defining presidential cycle, they flatly promise to be bad at it.
X, nรฉe Twitter, began its 2024 misinformation campaign last November when restored former president Donald Trump's account, who with some 87 million followers was a notorious purveyor of lies and conspiracy theories before being banned from the platform. In fact, when Elon Musk took over Twitter last October, extremist misinformation pressed across the platform in celebration of his inauguration. Facebook and YouTube are now racing to keep up with X's laissez-faire moderation scheme, which has made the platform a favorite among neo-nazis.
Recognizing the dangers ahead, the Biden campaign is preparing an aggressive strategy to combat what is sure to be a torrent of lies flooding the political landscape.
According to Politicothe effort will include "hundreds of employees and volunteers to monitor platforms, buy advertising to combat false claims, and spread their own countermessages through grassroots allies."
Leading the effort will be Rob Flaherty, the former White House director of digital strategy, who has already come under scrutiny from Republicans for his aggressive push to stem the flow of misinformation related to COVID-19 and the election. of 2020 on social media platforms. House Republicans are not only investigating the White House's call for social media platforms to remove posts, but they have also filed a lawsuit challenging the White House's approach.
Earlier this month, a federal appeals court found The Biden White House had likely violated the First Amendment, but the order was put on hold while the administration makes a formal bid for the Supreme Court to block the order.
Still, Flaherty, now Biden's deputy campaign manager, is eager to fight again, this time on the electoral front.
"The campaign will have to be more aggressive to combat misinformation from a communications perspective and fill some of the gaps that these companies are leaving behind," Flaherty told Politico.
Indeed. The goal of misinformation is to create so much uncertainty and chaos that people give up and tune out. In 2024, Trump supporters, who are energized by chaos, will likely be highly motivated and swimming in misinformation. So the potential withdrawal of reality-based voters could prove calamitous for our constitutional republic.
Kerry speaks with Drew Linzer, director of the online survey company Civiqs. Drew tells us what the polls say about voter feelings toward President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, and what the results would be if the two men, say... ran against each other for president in 2024. Oh yeah , Drew polled to find out who thinks Donald Trump is guilty of the crimes he's been accused of and whether or not he should see the inside of a cell.
