Before nov 5th election day Americans faced a non-stop stream of false content: fake FBI reports voter-fraud claims and made-up stories about mail-in ballots. Jen Easterly head of Cybersecurity agency called it the biggest wave of mis-information ever seen
The pre-election period showed how fake content affected voters minds; especially regarding immigration Despite real data showing immigrants commit less crimes than native citizens (about 400 vs 1100 crimes per 100‚000 people in texas) many trump supporters believed different facts
- Fake videos showing ballot destruction
- False CBS news reports
- Made-up stories about Kamala Harris
- Fake content about haitian immigrants
- Hurricane relief mis-information
Social media played a key role in spreading false content with Elon Muskʼs X platform leading the charge: his posts got 2 billion views and most had wrong info (but no fact-checking notes were added)
The new administration picks raise more questions - Tulsi Gabbard Robert F Kennedy Jr and Pete Hegseth all have history with spreading wrong info. Its worth noting that during his first term trump made about 21 false statements daily; experts think this number might go up
Foreign players like russia china and iran joined the game too; making fake websites social media accounts and working with local groups to spread wrong info. Now with trumps win these activities might get worse - creating a sort of arms race in false content making
Digital platforms watchdog groups and regular people need to work together to fix this; just like they did during covid-19 when platforms added more fact-checking and content rules. Local news sources should bring true facts to people; while international groups must work on spotting fake content early