August, 28 2023, 11:52am EDT

New Report on 2022 Election Disinformation Looks Ahead to 2024
As social media platforms drastically scale back efforts to control the expanding threat of election disinformation, a new report from Common Cause takes a look at efforts to combat the rampant problem in 2022 and previews what to expect in 2024. “Under the Microscope: Election Disinformation in 2022 And What We Learned for 2024” examines the preparations and what we saw during the midterms and looks at how to apply lessons to the already unfolding race for the White House. And finally the report points to existing and proposed legislation to help combat the growing threat to our democracy posed by election disinformation.
“Americans expect and deserve fair elections free from interference, but disinformation about voting and vote tallies is a very real and growing threat to our democracy,” said Common Cause Media & Democracy Program Director Ishan Mehta. “We have seen a precipitous growth in election disinformation since 2016 and over the same period we have witnessed a parallel drop in public trust in our elections and their results.”
Common Cause has been a leading voice in the fight to combat election disinformation on social media platforms since 2016 and the work continues today. That experience and the lessons learned are brought to bear in our ongoing work in the field and in the report released today which is the latest in a series on the growing problem of election disinformation.
“Election disinformation from bad actors, both foreign and domestic, has only grown as a threat since 2016 when Russian troll farms were deployed to impact the outcome of the presidential race,” said Common Cause Disinformation Analyst Emma Steiner. “But having seen the threat and the damage that stems from election disinformation, the social media giants have not doubled down on their efforts to control it. In fact those companies have irresponsibly curtailed their previously inadequate content moderation policies and practices. This is a trend that must not be allowed to continue.”
“The platforms have shown themselves unable or unwilling to take on this issue, and handwringing after the fact is not just insufficient, it is dangerous,” said Common Cause Vice President for Campaigns Jesse Littlewood. “It is time to take steps to regulate and combat this threat before these companies allow still more damage to be done to Americans’ faith in our elections.
The first section of the report, “The Lead-Up to 2022,” examines the financial incentives behind election denial that has seen activists and politicians raise vast amounts of money. It also takes a look at the outsized influence of social media platforms on our elections and how those companies have pulled back significantly from their originally inadequate efforts to stem the flow of election lies. The section also addresses the continued threat of political violence and intimidation as well as the information voids and news deserts that turn vulnerable populations into targets of opportunity for those spreading election disinformation.
The report’s second section, “Common Cause Education Fund’s Work in 2022,” digs into our work identifying, flagging, and removing election disinformation, proactively inoculating voters against disinformation, our expanded reach due to coordinating with partners from our Election Protection coalition, plus our work with journalists, and two case studies demonstrating successful interventions.
The final section, “Looking Ahead,” outlines what we are already seeing and what we expect during the highly-charged 2024 presidential election cycle. It looks at the role of election disinformation on the campaign trail, how tech platforms continue to retreat from enforcing their policies against disinformation, the remaining threat of political violence, how election disinformation fuels voter suppression through attacks on the voting process, and finally it examines legislative solutions.
To read the full report, click here.
To learn more about Common Cause’s Stopping Cyber Suppression Program, click here.
To read “As a Matter of Fact,” the 2021 Common Cause report on disinformation in the 2020 election and its aftermath, click here.
To read “Trending in the Wrong Direction,” our 2021 report on social media platforms’ declining enforcement of voting disinformation, click here.
Common Cause is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy. We work to create open, honest, and accountable government that serves the public interest; promote equal rights, opportunity, and representation for all; and empower all people to make their voices heard in the political process.
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At Least 95 Palestinians Killed in Israeli Attacks Including Massacres at Beach Café, Aid Points
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Israeli forces ramped up their genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip Monday, killing at least 95 Palestinians in attacks including massacres at a seaside café and a humanitarian aid distribution center and bombings of five school shelters housing displaced families and a hospital where refugees were sheltering in tents.
An Israeli strike targeted the al-Baqa Café in western Gaza City, one of the few operating businesses remaining after 633 days of Israel's obliteration of the coastal strip and a popular gathering place for journalists, university students, artists, and others seeking reliable internet service and a respite from nearly 21 months of near-relentless attacks.
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Warning: Photos shows image of death
Survivor Ali Abu Ateila toldThe Associated Press that the café was crowded with women and children at the time of the attack.
"Without a warning, all of a sudden, a warplane hit the place, shaking it like an earthquake," he said.
Another survivor of the massacre told Britain's Sky News: "All I see is blood... Unbelievable. People come here to take a break from what they see inside Gaza. They come westward to breathe."
Eyewitness Ahmed Al-Nayrab toldAgence France-Presse that a "huge explosion shook the area."
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"We were targeted by artillery," survivor Monzer Hisham Ismail told The Associated Press. Another survivor, Yousef Mahmoud Mokheimar, told the AP that Israeli troops "fired at us indiscriminately." Mokheimar was shot in the leg, another man who tried to rescue him was also shot.
IDF troops have killed nearly 600 Palestinian aid-seekers and wounded more than 4,000 others over the past month, with Israeli military officers and soldiers saying they were ordered to deliberately fire on civilians in search of food and other necessities amid Israel's weaponized starvation of Gaza.
Another 13 people were reportedly killed Monday when IDF warplanes bombed an aid warehouse in the Zeitoun quarter of southern Gaza City, according to al-Ahli Baptist Hospital officials cited by The Palestine Chronicle. IDF warplanes also reportedly bombed five schools housing displaced families, three of them in Zeitoun. Israeli forces also bombed the courtyard of al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where thousands of forcibly displaced Palestinian families are sheltering in tents. It was reportedly the 12th time the hospital has been bombed since the start of the war.
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Israel's overall behavior in the war is the subject of an ongoing International Court of Justice genocide case, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including murder and using starvation as a weapon of war.
Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed or wounded more than 204,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including over 14,000 people who are missing and presumed dead and buried under rubble.
The intensified IDF attacks follow Israel's order of new forced evacuation orders amid the ongoing Operation Gideon's Chariots, an ongoing offensive which aims to conquer and indefinitely occupy all of Gaza and ethnically cleanse much of its population, possibly to make way for Jewish recolonization as advocated by many right-wing Israelis.
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In addition to Tlaib, the letter to Rubio was signed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Democratic Reps. Greg Casar (Texas), Jesús "Chuy" García (Ill.), Al Green (Texas), Jonathan Jackson (Ill.), Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), Henry "Hank"Johnson (Ga.), Summer Lee (Pa.), Jim McGovern (Mass.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Chellie Pingree (Maine), Mark Pocan (Wisc.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Delia Ramirez (Ill.), Paul Tonko (N.Y.), Nydia Velázquez (N.Y.), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (N.J.).
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Some of the names on the list of people crafting the agenda—named Project 2029, an echo of the far-right Project 2025 blueprint Trump is currently enacting—left progressives with deepened concerns that party insiders have "learnt nothing" and "forgotten nothing" from the president's electoral victories against centrist Democratic candidates over the past decade, as one economist said.
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Progressives on the advisory board for the project include economist Justin Wolfers and former Roosevelt Institute president Felicia Wong, but antitrust expert Hal Singer said any policy agenda aimed at securing a Democratic victory in the 2028 election "needs way more progressives."
As The New York Times noted in its reporting on Project 2029, the panel is being convened amid extensive infighting regarding how the Democratic Party can win back control of the White House and Congress.
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As national security adviser to President Joe Biden, Sullivan played a key role in the administration's defense and funding of Israel's assault on Gaza, which international experts and human rights groups have said is a genocide.
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