Social Media Companies Still Boost Election Fraud Claims, Report Says

The major social media companies are prepared to deal with the misinformation surrounding the elections.

According to a report released on Monday, they continued to undermine the integrity of the vote by allowing election- related conspiracy theories to spread.

The social media companies still host and amplify election denialism, which threatens to further erode confidence in the democratic process, according to the report.

According to the report, the companies are responsible for the false belief among conservatives that the 2020 election was fraudulent. The report joined a chorus of warnings that the results in November could be very violent.

It is time for the industry to do more to address election denialism, which has become one of the most dangerous byproducts of social media.

All of the major platforms have promised to protect the election process in the wake of the fake news scandal. The report said that the measures were not effective.

Facebook said it would ban ads that questioned the legitimacy of the elections, but it didn't include politicians in its fact-checking program. The report says that candidates and other influential leaders can undermine confidence in the vote by questioning ballot procedures.

The company's site integrity team had only two experts on misinformation according to an internal report released as part of a whistle-blower's complaint.

The New York University report called for more transparency in how companies rank and recommend content. They should remove provably untrue claims and enhance fact-checking efforts.

Elizabeth Busby is a spokeswoman for the company. Efforts to "pre-bunk" false information and to reduce the visibility of potentially misleading claims are included.

Many of the recommendations made in the report have already been carried out, according to a statement from YouTube.

The most viewed and recommended videos and channels related to the election are from authoritative sources.

TikTok did not reply.

The integrity of the vote in November is likely to be as contentious as it was in 2020 when President Donald J. Trump and some of his supporters refused to accept the result.

The lack of attention by social media companies has allowed a coordinated campaign to take root among conservatives that claims that election fraud is bent on tipping the election to Democrats.

The report said that election denialism was evolving from an obsession with the former president's inability to accept defeat into a broader, if equally baseless, attack on the patriotism of all Democrats.