With The Facebook Papers adding daily to the evidence of the inability and unwillingness of social media giants to combat disinformation and other harmful content, Common Cause today released an extensive report on election disinformation, including a comprehensive set of reforms needed to curb this huge and growing problem and protect our right to vote in elections next week, next year, and beyond. Based on more than 15,000 hours monitoring social media in the 2020 election cycle, together with legal and policy expertise, “Sa Katotohanan: Ang Mga Pinsala na Dulot ng Disinformation sa Halalan” details the seriousness and scale of the threat, current applicable state and federal laws, and the woefully inadequate and inconsistent civic integrity policies of the social media giants. The report concludes with a sweeping series of reform recommendations to better enable us to fight back against election disinformation.

“In America, we expect and deserve clean elections but Facebook and other social media giants have largely failed in their duty to identify and remove election disinformation from their platforms. It is time for more regulation and outside oversight before these companies allow still more damage to be done to Americans’ faith in our elections,” sabi Karen Hobert Flynn, Common Cause President. “The social media companies are not the only culprits here, but they have to varying degrees stood by while The Big Lie has gained momentum on their platforms. Today, roughly 1 in 3 Americans—and nearly two-thirds of Republicans—wrongly believe the 2020 election was ‘rigged and stolen from Trump.’ Those lies, which flourished on social media, ultimately fueled the January 6 insurrection.”

The report provides an overview of election disinformation, explaining what it is, how it’s being spread, and who is spreading it. It identifies the most common forms of election disinformation to include communications providing the wrong election date, bogus election rules, voter intimidation, untrue claims about election integrity or security, and untrue claims post-election about results. It finds most common vehicles for disseminating disinformation include social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, junk websites, mainstream media like Fox News, search engines like Google, as well as email, text messages, and robocalls.

“Common Cause staff, disinformation analysts, and thousands of volunteers have been on the front lines fighting election disinformation and we have witnessed firsthand its explosion on social media in recent years,” sabi Jesse Littlewood, Common Cause Vice President for Campaigns. “We have also seen and documented the social media companies’ failures in their public commitment to prevent the spread of disinformation about elections – failures echoed by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen. The current state of affairs is nothing short of dangerous and the time is now for comprehensive reforms.”  

The report goes on to detail current federal and state laws regulating election disinformation—voting rights, campaign finance, communications, consumer protection, media literacy, and privacy laws—and the shortcomings of current laws. It then examines the civic integrity policies of some of the largest social media companies, the policies Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have put in place to address abuses of their platforms for the dissemination of election disinformation. Those policies, the report shows, have proven insufficient and ineffective in combatting the very serious threat of election disinformation.

“The time to act is now before any more damage is done and our actions must be sweeping in order to combat the dire threat of election disinformation,” said Yosef Getachew, Common Cause Media and Democracy Program Director. “The reforms must include changes to state and federal laws encompassing voting rights, campaign finance, privacy, media, as well reforms to federal and state executive and regulatory agencies. Social media companies must also take additional steps to strengthen their civic integrity policies and close loopholes that allow bad actors to spread harmful content.”

The report’s final section and primary focus is a series of state, federal and corporate reforms to help stem the flow of election disinformation that is undermining Americans’ faith in the nation’s elections. Reform recommendations detailed in the report include the following.

Dapat palakasin ng mga kumpanya ng social media ang kanilang mga patakaran sa paglaban sa nilalamang idinisenyo upang pahinain ang ating demokrasya, kabilang ang pagbibigay sa mga user ng may awtoridad na impormasyon tungkol sa pagboto at halalan, pagbabawas ng pagkalat at pagpapalakas ng disinformation ng halalan, at pagbibigay ng higit na transparency tungkol sa kanilang mga patakaran at kasanayan sa pagmo-moderate ng nilalaman.

Dapat baguhin ng Kongreso at mga lehislatura ng estado ang mga batas sa mga karapatan sa pagboto upang tahasan ipagbawal ang sadyang pagpapakalat ng maling impormasyon tungkol sa oras, lugar, o paraan ng halalan o ang mga kwalipikasyon o paghihigpit sa pagiging karapat-dapat ng botante, na may layuning hadlangan ang pagboto.

Ang Kongreso at mga lehislatura ng estado ay dapat i-update ang mga batas sa paghahayag ng campaign finance para sa digital age, upang isama “binayaran ng” mga disclaimer sa digital advertising, at mga epektibong probisyon na nagbibigay liwanag sa pera na inilipat sa pagitan ng mga grupo upang maiwasan ang pagsisiwalat.

Ang Kongreso at mga lehislatura ng estado ay dapat pumasa sa komprehensibong batas sa privacy ng data upang protektahan ang mga mamimili mula sa mapang-abusong pangongolekta, paggamit, at pagbabahagi ng personal na data.

Dapat ang Kongreso magpatibay ng batas na nagpapatibay sa lokal na media at pagprotekta sa pampublikong access sa mataas na kalidad na impormasyon tungkol sa pamahalaan, kaligtasan ng publiko, kalusugan ng publiko, pag-unlad ng ekonomiya, at lokal na kultura.

Dapat ang Kongreso magpasa ng batas upang protektahan ang pag-access ng mga researcher at watchdog na mamamahayag sa data ng social media, na nagbibigay-daan sa mga mananaliksik na pag-aralan ang mga kasanayan sa platform ng social media nang walang takot sa panghihimasok o paghihiganti mula sa mga kumpanya ng social media.

Dapat ang Kongreso magpasa ng batas upang ipagbawal ang mga algorithm ng diskriminasyon sa online na platform at upang lumikha ng higit na transparency tungkol sa kung paano gumagana ang mga algorithm na ito.

Ang White House at mga gobernador sa mga estado sa buong bansa ay dapat gumanap ng isang nangungunang papel sa paglaban sa disinformation sa halalan, kabilang ang sa pamamagitan ng pagbibigay ng mga executive order na nagtuturo sa mga ahensyang may pagpapatupad, paggawa ng panuntunan, at mga awtoridad sa pagsisiyasat na gamitin ang mga kakayahan na ito sa paglaban sa disinformation sa halalan.

To read the “As a Matter of Fact: The Harms Caused by Election Disinformation” report, i-click dito.