Space lasers to weather machines – how conspiracy theories have run riot on TikTok & Facebook…& could warp US election
RAMPANT conspiracy theories and misinformation online will play a significant role in the upcoming US elections, it has been warned.
TikTok and Facebook have been blasted by experts for how they deal with people spewing lies on social media as many fear the 2024 presidential race may be swayed by endless “fake news“.
Wacky theories have run riot online in the past with bizarre suggestions saying US wildfires were caused by Jewish space lasers.
Others baseless ideas have also spiralled out of control ahead of November 5, such as rigged ballot boxes, edited images and even engineered natural weather disasters.
Chido Dunn, a senior campaigner at Global Witness, led a recent investigation into how certain platforms handle harmful disinformation around US politics.
Focusing on the elections, she found that just weeks before the vote, Facebook and TikTok approved ads containing serious misinformation.
Made-up adverts saying things such as “all voters must pass an English language test before entering a polling station” were sent in for approval by the Global Witness team.
TikTok allowed half of the fake posts on their site whereas Facebook accepted over 12.5 per cent.
Chido says this isn’t good enough and more checks must be taken to prevent hoax information being allowed online.
She told The Sun: “We have called on the platforms, especially TikTok, to increase their moderation capabilities in order to make sure that the US election has as much integrity as possible.
“More and more people are getting their news from social media so the way in which information operates becomes more and more important.
“Social media really is one of the main ways in which information wars are fought out for elections.
“It’s how people get information, not just about who to vote for, but like where to go and vote. It’s really, really important.
“People almost use it as a search engine now so it’s really important that any information that gets put out is correct.”
Ava Lee, the Digital Threats Campaign Lead at Global Witness, also voiced concerns, saying: “It is shocking that social media companies are still approving thoroughly debunked and blatant disinformation on their platforms.
“In 2024, everyone knows the danger of electoral disinformation and how important it is to have quality content moderation in place.
“There’s no excuse for these platforms to still be putting democratic processes at risk.”
Responding to the study, both TikTok and Meta told The Sun that the report was accurate but didn’t factor in the relentless work both companies have done in the lead up to November 5.
They both said that protecting the 2024 elections online has been a top priority for months.
Allowing conspiracy theories to run wild
One of the biggest online conspiracy theories that many fear could impact on the November 5 elections is around how people can vote.
Across several US states, voters can use electronic voting machines to cast their votes.
All of the technology involved has been rigorously tested to ensure complete transparency and fairness when it comes to counting votes.
But people online have started to create a bizarre discourse about the machines being programmed to suit certain parties.
These serious allegations of election rigging are completely unverified yet thousands of people share and like comments online relating to the wild allegations.
It is shocking that social media companies are still approving thoroughly debunked and blatant disinformation on their platforms
Ava Lee
As more and more people speak about the claims it leads others to believe they could be true – causing the allegations to spiral and trend.
Chido fears this constant cycle will have a huge effect on the upcoming election and beyond.
She said: “I think miss and disinformation will play a significant role in the US election and in the aftermath.
“We only have to look at past elections to know that it’s not just an issue when it comes to the outcome of the election.
“So think it’s guaranteed that miss and disinformation will play a role and will affect both voter behavior and outcomes.”
Another bizarre conspiracy that caused political chaos online came when Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene peddled a conspiracy theory that wild fires in California were caused by a Jewish-controlled space laser.
Greene publicly laid the blame for the 2018 fires on the Rothschild family and former California Gov Jerry Brown.
Her Facebook rant even went on to suggest that those she implicated were supposedly working together to clear space on the land for a $77billion high speed rail project.
Greene has also supported theories that the Parkland shooting, as well as mass shootings in Sandy Hook and Las Vegas were “staged.”
Social media has become a cease pit of people labelling global events as “fake”.
One of the worst saw incorrect online sleuths accuse the Trump assassination attempt of being a manufactured hoax.
Some said the Republicans set up the shooting to make Trump look strong, patriotic and brave.
Whereas other twisted minds tried to pin the blame on the world’s elites as they put out ludicrous allegations saying people wanted to kill Trump to eliminate him from regaining power.
Their made-up evidence claims the Secret Service should have been able to spot the would-be assassin before he fired.
US President Joe Biden has even been forced to step in and stop one online conspiracy from spiralling too far out of control.
When Hurricane Milton swept through Florida last month a number of false claims emerged accusing the weather of being “manipulated” and “engineered”.
TikTok and Facebook were rife with accusations in the days following the deadly hurricane with thousands of posts blaming the weather on the US government.
Biden publicly described the claims as “beyond ridiculous” and called the posts “stupid”.
The rise of artificial intelligence and advanced tech users has also created a new genre of disinformation online.
People are now able to manipulate pictures, video and audio to create a sphere of hoax posts.
Most recently a fake image of Kamala Harris working at McDonald’s swept the internet.
The social media media platforms have a responsibility to people
Chido Dunn
The picture was edited and a younger photo of Harris’ face was put onto the body of an ordinary worker.
Once people discovered the image was doctored it caused a frenzy of accusations from pro-Trump fans.
Some claimed it was shared by the Democratic Party to hit back at Trump after he said his rival lied about working at McDonald’s.
This led to fierce online debate with users accusing Harris’ team of being jealous, deceitful and caught out by Trump.
These unfounded remarks were quickly dismissed when the man behind the edited picture came forward and admitted the image was fake.
For Chido one of the biggest issues with how easy it is to stir up hatred and lies online is how it impacts innocent people.
She said: “It can really undermine trust and cohesion in families and communities.
“One of the main tactics of disinformation isn’t just to put fake information out there but also to cast a question over what’s real and what’s not.
“That confuses people, that makes people feel like they don’t know who to trust, or what to trust, or whether anything is real, and that then kind of makes people double down in the echo chambers.”
This pushes voters further towards one side or the other as the more content they interact with and view the greater percentage of similar viewpoints they’ll continue to see.
Another huge danger with disinformation is its ability to swing voters.
The US – along with many elections globally – are often decided based on the final vote from a small number of regions.
The US in particular has seven “swing states” for the 2024 election with political voices saying whoever wins the majority of those will come out on top.
This means that political parties tend to focus on persuading these people to guarantee their vital voices are catered for.
Specific targeting often aims at changing voter behavior by mentioning specific and key policies which leaders believe will sway people.
Chido has urged social media platforms like TikTok and Facebook to be more careful around major events such as elections to ensure a fair outcome.
“The social media platforms have a responsibility to people,” she said.
“They are so big, they’re so powerful and they’re so profitable that they really have to step up and put some real efforts towards keeping society safe.
“They need to have business models that don’t exploit miss and disinformation and people.
“And they need to put resources behind keeping really important things, like elections, running smoothly and running with integrity.”
Many of the issues around misinformation online stem from how popular certain things can become.
Baseless conspiracy theories or divisive messages tend to enrage people and create fierce debates on social media.
This in turn drives more users to interact on the topic and generate more revenue for the creator and the platform.
Chido says this is one reason why the billionaire tech bosses allow for misinformation as they “prioritize profit over people and democracy”.
She added: “A lot of the platforms talk a big talk – they have policies in place and they give statements to the media where they say they take these things seriously.
“But when push comes to shove a lot of the resources aren’t enough.”
TikTok and Meta’s response
Both TikTok and Meta representatives assured The Sun that despite the results of the study they aren’t reflective of the work both companies have been putting in to help the election process.
A TikTok spokesperson told The Sun: “Four ads were incorrectly approved during the first stage of moderation, but did not run on our platform.
“We do not allow political advertising and will continue to enforce this policy on an ongoing basis.”
They added that TikTok has worked on over 150 elections and has constantly looked to improve their platform after each one.
A Meta spokesperson also told The Sun: “While this report is extremely limited in scope and as a result not reflective of how we enforce our policies at scale, we nonetheless are continually evaluating and improving our enforcement efforts.
“Protecting the 2024 elections online is one of our top priorities, with around 40,000 people globally working on safety and security and more than $20 billion invested in these areas since 2016.”
Meta made it clear they are working to achieve transparency in social issues such as politics.
They also claim to have built the largest global fact-checking network of any platform in the world for both Instagram and Facebook.
How do the US presidential elections work?
BY Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
The Democratic and Republican parties nominate their candidates with a series of votes – called state primaries and caucuses – in the run up to the election in November, held every four years.
This gives members the opportunity to choose who they want to lead the party into an election – this year, Donald Trump and following Biden’s resignation, Kamala Harris.
There are also some independent candidates running for president – arguably the most well-known was Robert F Kennedy Jr who pulled out in August and endorsed Trump.
In US elections the winner is not the candidate who gets the most votes across the country.
Instead Trump and Harris will compete to win smaller contests held in each of the 50 states.
Many of the states often vote the same way – but seven of them – Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona – tend to go in either direction.
Each state has a number of electoral college votes – partly based on population sizes – with a total of 538 across the country up for grabs.
The winner is the candidate that gets 270 or more, marking a majority in the electoral college.
All but two of the US’ 50 states – Maine and Nebraska – have a winner-takes-all rule.
Meaning whichever candidate gets the highest number of votes wins all of the state’s electoral college votes.
In 2016 Hillary Clinton won more votes nationally than Donald Trump – but she still lost the election because of electoral college votes.
The candidate who will win this election is the one who secures 270 or more college ballots.
Usually the winner is declared on the night, but it can take days to finalise the result.
In 2020 Joe Biden wasn’t officially announced as the president-elect until November 7.
The new president will be sworn into office in January on the steps of the Capitol building in Washington DC.