Disinformation

Today, Common Cause and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights filed comments with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in support of a petition for rulemaking filed by Public Citizen to amend its regulation on “fraudulent misrepresentation” to include “deliberately false Artificial Intelligence-generated content in campaign ads or other communications.”

Emma Steiner, the information accountability project manager at Common Cause, told HuffPost that Musk’s monetization program, combined with his new system for receiving “verified” badges, had encouraged misleading information. “The new verification system means that it’s almost impossible to discern real news from fake news on the platform now, especially since people are posting specifically to gain revenue for engagement,” Steiner said. “That creates some really perverse incentives for breaking news events.”

“He used his words to hammer at democratic institutions in ways that undermine trust and confidence, and it’s dangerous,” said Stephen Spaulding, vice president of policy at Common Cause, a nonpartisan good government group. “That is part of his playbook, which is to soften the ground to then attack the legitimate outcome of an election.”

Ishan Mehta, director for media and democracy at Common Cause, another watchdog organization, said X has largely severed communications with groups like his and that the layoffs were "dangerous and irresponsible for a platform that has many millions of users."

There is no viable alternative to ERIC. Other states have tried, but to no avail; for example, the Interstate Crosscheck System, a program started in Kansas, had a 99% error rate. It was found to eliminate about 200 registrations used to cast legitimate votes for every one duplicate voter registration. As explained by the Louisiana Illuminator, “Replicating what ERIC built would be a major technical, scientific, administrative and political challenge, even for a state committed to making it work.”

Emma Steiner, information accountability project manager with the non-partisan group Common Cause, said disinformation can often be hard to spot. "A lot of times people fall for disinformation," said Steiner, "because it seems to confirm something they already believe and that's where people get tripped up." Steiner recommended that people always refer to official sources for voting information - including Secretary of States' offices or local election boards. "Disinformation spreaders and disinformation campaigns tend to target marginalized populations and people who live in information voids," said Steiner, "meaning they don't have the resources or capacity to find reliable information." Steiner said while Facebook - for example - has made some effort to fight disinformation by launching its Voting and Election Center, tech companies still have a responsibility to ensure information being shared on their platforms is accurate.