The Most Dominant Toxic Election Narratives Online

mules People are watching a poll watch party. People who help.

These topics are among the most divisive and misleading narratives online about the upcoming elections. Some of the narratives on social media have been accompanied by angry and threatening rhetoric.

The effects of online discussions are felt in the real world. Some people are confused about whether mail-in ballots are still legal and voters are flooded with misinformation about voting machines.

Lisa Marra, elections director in Cochise County, Arizona, told a House committee that voters were angry and confused. They don't know what to think

There are three main categories of narratives that are most prevalent: continued lies about election fraud, threats of violence and citizen policing of elections, and divisive posts on health and social policies. What do you know about them?

False claims of election fraud are commanding conversation online, with former President Donald J. Trump protesting that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.

The issue of voter fraud is rare, but it has become a central campaign issue for dozens of candidates around the country, causing misinformation and toxic content online.

The number of times that the phrase "Stolen election" was mentioned on the social networking site was up nearly 900 percent from the same period in 2020.

Videos with the term "stop the steal" or "stolen election" have been popular on the video sharing site. According to Similarweb, such posts attracted 2.5 million viewers in May, more than triple the total from a year ago.

Misinformation surrounding the integrity of voting has spread. There are more conspiracy theories circulating online about individuals submitting fraudulent ballots, about voting machines being rigged to favor Democrats, and about election officials changing the types of pens that voters must use to mark ballots.

These theories have led to the creation of new terms such as "ballot mules" and "ballot traffickers", which are used to describe people who are paid to cast fake votes. The May release of the film "2000 Mules", which claimed widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, popularized the terms. From June 19 to July 19 of this year, "ballot mules" was mentioned 17,592 times on the social networking site.

The stars of the movie were interviewed by the conservative talk show host. More than two million people have watched Mr. Kirk's interview.

Kyle Weiss is a senior analyst at Graphika, a research firm that studies misinformation and fake social media. The public became aware of a set of core narratives after the 2020 election.

The calls for voters to act against election fraud dominated online conversations about the election. Some people organize citizen policing of voting, with stake outs of polling stations and demands for information about voter rolls in their counties. Civil rights groups don't like poll watching because it can intimidate voters, particularly immigrants.

From July 27 to August 3, a photo of people with a ballot box was the second most-shared post about the elections. One of the people who shared it was the author of 2000 Mules, Dinesh D'Souza.

In July, a retired Army captain called for all-night tailgate parties for every drop box in America. The post was seen by over 67,000 people.

There has been a rise in calls to shut down or defund the F.B.I. after last month's raid of Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence.

The number of mentions of the phrase "Abolish FBI" on social media increased by more than one thousand percent in the two months before the 2020 election.

If Republicans win control of Congress in November, Representative Andrew Clyde implied in a video that he and others would act against the F.B.I.

We will take the house back. He said in a video captured by a left-leaning online show, "You watch what happens to the F.B.I." He did not reply to the request for comment.

There are online conversations about the elections. The discussions are centered on highly partisan issues that candidates are campaigning on and that are widely regarded as motivating voters, leading to a surge of false statements.

A month after Florida passed legislation that prohibits classroom discussion or instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity, there was a spike in the number of false links to gay and trans people.

According to a study by the Human Rights Campaign and the Center for Countering Digital Hate, there was an increase in the use of language about gay people and children being abused on social media.

The report states that the narrative was spread most widely by 10 far-right figures. The report said that their social media posts on "grooming" were viewed 48 million times.

A North Carolina preschool is using LGBT flag flashcards with a pregnant man in the classroom. We went from Reading Rainbow to Randy Rainbow but don't think the Left is grooming our kids. It was liked and shared thousands of times.

Ms. Boebert and Ms. Taylor Greene did not reply to questions.

The report found that 59 ads promoted the idea that the L.G.B.T. Q.+ community and allies were grooming children. According to the report, Meta accepted up to $24,987 for the ads that were served to over 2 million users.

The ads mentioned in the report have been taken down.

The anti-L.G.B.T. moral panic that has been influencing state and federal legislation is likely to be a significant midterm issue due to the repeated pushing of 'groomer' narratives.