In the times following the presidential election, a well-known pressure of denialism and conspiracy considering started to emerge within the corners of some social media platforms. On the best, acquainted conspiracy theories about voting popularized by President-elect Donald Trump continued to flow into. But comparable concepts additionally took maintain amongst some supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris and have continued to unfold.
NewsGuard, a agency that screens misinformation, discovered that just about 800 social media accounts and video channels had printed false or egregiously deceptive claims concerning the 2024 election beginning on Sept. 1, together with over 960 web sites and greater than 1,200 “partisan websites masquerading as politically impartial native information shops.” Sam Howard, NewsGuard’s U.S. politics editor, stated that the deceptive election claims had been seen on quite a lot of platforms, together with X, Threads, Reddit and Facebook.
According to NewsGuard, the false narratives being unfold on-line have emerged from each side of the aisle: Where Democrats gained, like within the U.S. Senate election in Wisconsin, Republicans alleged vote-counting “irregularities,” whereas some Democrats alleged that Trump’s win was rigged with the assistance of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite tv for pc web supplier. There’s no proof that is true.
On platforms together with TikTok and X, NBC News recognized dozens of movies and posts — which reached over 10 million viewers, in keeping with public view counts — that shared conspiracy theories associated to Musk, Starlink and election denialism. NewsGuard stated there was “no proof” that Starlink was used to intrude with the presidential election in Trump’s favor. Individual election techniques usually are not interconnected, and there’s no proof presently suggesting that Starlink or Musk interfered with vote tallies.
Max Read, a senior analysis supervisor for elections on the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a suppose tank learning extremism, hate and disinformation, stated the post-election denialism popping up on the left is “probably the most important” effort to dispute or undermine elections he has noticed from that facet of the aisle.
“We see restricted engagement on most of these issues from liberal areas or left-leaning actors on-line,” Read advised NBC News. “It’s a fairly insignificant stage of discourse in comparison with the best.”
While Republican candidates for workplace and Trump have pushed election denialism and conspiracy theories about elections, aided by an unlimited and rising community of right-wing media shops and social media figures, the identical help and infrastructure doesn’t measure up on the left. While there are some left-leaning influencers who’ve trafficked in undermining the 2024 election, they don’t have the identical attain or community. Conservative voter denialism efforts have additionally spiraled into violent rhetoric since 2020, whereas liberal rhetoric up to now has not.
“I are likely to suppose there’s a lot much less room to develop, for now, on the left, in comparison with the best,” Read stated. “Part of that’s the infrastructure. The buy-in is simply not there from distinguished media shops on the left or elected officers, issues like that.”
NewsGuard’s Howard stated that almost all of left-wing accounts that shared false election claims are “considerably obscure” compared to the accounts that have been sharing misinformation within the days following the 2020 presidential election, the place extra established right-wing figures helped most of the conspiracy theories achieve traction. He additionally stated that among the theories which have been rising from the left have given right-wing accounts the chance to advertise election myths from the previous.
“People have pointed to the outcomes of the election final week versus the outcomes from the election 4 years in the past, and folk on the best have superior this declare that it one way or the other affirms that the 2020 election was stolen,” Howard advised NBC News.
Howard additionally stated that many left-wing accounts that shared misinformation relating to the legitimacy of the 2024 presidential election had been flagged by the agency up to now for sharing theories that the tried Trump assassination over the summer time had been staged. No such theories have ever been substantiated.
“People search for simple solutions in instances of disaster, and for many who view this election consequence as a disaster for themselves or only a shock, it’s considerably pure to search for one thing to clarify that away and to clarify why your expectations weren’t met,” Read stated. “And I feel that’s constant throughout the ideological spectrum, assembly a shock with looking and uncertainty about the place to search out solutions and typically falling into and latching onto issues that aren’t true however are simple explanations.”
“This could also be only a passing second that doesn’t result in lasting perception in election denial narratives on the left, or it might have extra traction. It’s a ‘wait and see’ on that entrance.”
Some of the election denialism claims that originated on the best have been echoed on the left, significantly associated to Musk, who pushed a debunked conspiracy concept about Dominion voting machines in Pennsylvania whereas campaigning for Trump within the weeks main as much as the election. As the 2024 election outcomes have been reported, social media customers on the left started to invest about Musk’s position in vote counting.
In an episode of his podcast per week after the election, Joe Rogan advised comic Theo Von that Musk had “created an app” to see the election outcomes hours prematurely. Left-wing creators started to invest how Musk was in a position to have pulled these outcomes, constructing a baseless conspiracy concept that Starlink was used to govern vote tallies. One TikTok consumer made a video with 300,000 views citing an area information report that stated one district in California used Starlink’s web companies at its polling web site — the report stated Starlink was used to attach ballot employees’ laptops to the web, not the voting machines. A majority of California voted for Harris. Another TikTok video cited Harris’ concession speech, through which she stated, “Only when it’s darkish sufficient are you able to see the celebs,” suggesting that she was referencing Starlink.
Voting machines usually are not linked to the web throughout the election course of. Nonetheless, a TikTok with over one million views stated, “Starlink was used to tally up among the votes … so I simply wish to know, when is the court docket date going to be for Elon Musk?” It is fake that Starlink was used to tally up among the votes.
All three TikTok movies have been faraway from the platform after NBC News reached out for remark.
NewsGuard additionally highlighted a press release on X made by Jen Easterly, the director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, that addressed election conspiracy theories, writing that the company had “no proof of any malicious exercise that had a fabric impression on the safety or integrity of our election infrastructure.”
Read stated that social media platforms like TikTok have been moderating among the posts containing misinformation concerning the election consistent with their insurance policies.
“One of the primary form of important posts that we noticed about it was on TikTok. That was final weekend. It form of went viral and moved from there to plenty of reposts on X, after which that video was taken down by TikTok earlier this week,” Read stated. “The platforms, no less than in some instances, are taking motion on this conspiracy concept.”
TikTok’s insurance policies forbid misinformation concerning the electoral course of. X’s insurance policies forbid misinformation meant to intrude in elections.
Despite these insurance policies, some left-wing TikTok and X customers additionally speculated that there was nonetheless an opportunity for Harris to win the election after noting a change on the web site of the Harris Victory Fund, a fundraising committee for Harris’ marketing campaign. On the location, it stated {that a} portion of the funds can be allotted to the “President’s Recount Account.” The web site additionally stated the funds can be used to help down-ticket Democrats.
Some customers linked this variation with efforts to recount the vote, hoping it might be in favor of Harris, in addition to conspiracy theories that Trump and Republicans rigged the election. Hashtags akin to “#Trumpcheated,” “#DoNotConcedeKamala” and “#Recount2024” started trending on X after the election was referred to as for Trump.
“Kamala Harris left us a breadcrumb,” one TikTok consumer stated concerning the up to date language on the fund’s web site in a video that acquired over 700,000 views. “Just as a result of we aren’t storming any capitols, these of us who truly perceive how elections work perceive that the numbers aren’t numbering.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that on the morning of Nov. 6, the ActBlue PAC’s web site had additionally been up to date to say that it might allocate a portion of the funds to the “President’s Recount Account,” however a Democratic National Committee spokesperson stated in a press release to NBC News that the entire funds given to the Harris Victory Fund are going to the DNC. While fundraising efforts will proceed to learn the Democratic Party, the language getting used to solicit funds has inadvertently pushed among the conspiratorial excited about the election outcomes.
Some customers additionally raised issues relating to voter turnout compared to the 2020 presidential election, with one X consumer writing, “20 Million Democrats simply sat this one out?? No manner. Not an opportunity.” The put up didn’t comprise a visibility label and was not visibly suppressed.
CISA responded to this hypothesis on its web site’s “Rumor vs. Reality” useful resource, the place it has debunked election misinformation. The company wrote that “variations in vote totals for various contests on the identical poll happen in each election and don’t by themselves point out fraud or points with voting expertise.”
The FBI additionally launched a press release addressing election misinformation through which it addressed “a fabricated video” that claimed the FBI had acquired “9,000 complaints about malfunctioning voting machines,” which the company referred to as false.