Fake news illustration.
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ALLILI MOURAD / SIPA
A few days before the US presidential election, false information related to voting and election security is thriving on Facebook, despite the platform's promises to limit this kind of content.
The NewsGuard organization, which has developed an Internet browser extension that enables analysis of the reliability of news sources [pre-bunking], has identified 40 Facebook pages that constitute "super-broadcasters" of disinformation about the US elections.
“These pages shared bogus content about voting or the electoral process to over 100,000 subscribers each.
Only three of the 53 posts identified on these pages - pages which, combined, reach around 22.9 million subscribers - have been flagged as fake by Facebook, ”Newsguard explains.
NewsGuard is releasing a two reports about online election misinformation
The two reports - 🔍 Top Election Myths Spreading Online 🔍 and 🚨 Tracking Facebook's Election Misinformation 'Super-Spreaders' 🚨 - are now available onlinehttps: //t.co/faRE0Yq9Mu
- NewsGuard (@NewsGuardRating) October 28, 2020
Among the accounts that spread the most false information is the Facebook page of Glenn Beck (3,186,888 likes
)
, a conservative commentator and television host, who posts links to his website and to TheBlaze.com, the network of right information he created.
But also the Facebook page of Pamela Geller (1,283,200 likes), a conservative writer known for her critiques of Islam and who promoted the birther conspiracy theory on former US President Barack Obama, or the Facebook page of David J. Harris Jr. (1,178,355 likes), a conservative commentator who operates two news websites that regularly publish false statements.
Rejected postal ballots, deceased voters ...
A few days before the American poll, the pre-bunking organization has also listed the most popular online myths about the poll.
These include allegations that postal ballots were thrown away, ballots from deceased people counted as votes, and even poison about poll observers.
The analysis also shows that the myths related to the American elections often present common problems related to the vote as examples of fraud or deception, casting doubt on the electoral process,
even though they can be corrected.
Others seem to be based on a misunderstanding of electoral rules and practices, whether intentional or not.
"For example, a popular Facebook post recently claimed that Pennsylvania had rejected 372,000 ballots, when in fact the authorities in that US state had rejected 372,000 requests for a postal vote," explains the pre- bunking.
In the United States, it is not uncommon for requests to vote by mail to be rejected, without necessarily revealing that there is any problem.
The claim, which appeared on at least five large-audience Facebook pages, is one of dozens of misleading claims that Facebook has not flagged as false.
Despite the efforts announced by Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg to stem the spread of election misinformation, “these pages continue to publish deeply false information about the vote and the American electoral process, apparently in violation of its guidelines. policies, ”Newsguard explains.
New intoxes, which are based on erroneous and misleading interpretations, continue to emerge every day ...
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