Please don't amplify conspiracy theories!

The reality is that it always takes time for some states to count all the votes; when these rumors started ramping up, there were over ten million uncounted ballots in California alone. But, many people don’t know that this is how things always work. So, with emotions high in the aftermath of the election, disinformation purveyors are taking advantage of the opportunity to get well-intentioned people to help amplify conspiracy theories.

If you see allegations of “millions of missing votes” or voting machine fraud, please don’t amplify them! Instead:

  • If it’s somebody you know, send them a private message letting them know that they’re unintentionally amplifying a false rumor.

  • If it’s not somebody you know, report it to the moderators as disinformation.

  • The Nexus of PrivacyOP
    1·
    1 month ago

    I talked about that in the article:

    Don’t get me wrong, multiple voter suppression techniques actually were used to keep people from voting – purging voters from rolls, felon disenfranchisement, 6-hour lines, texts with false information, voter intimidation, voter id laws, signature challenges, etc etc etc. But that’s not what these conspiracy allegations are focusing on.

    And I also discussed it in terms of the goals of people pushing these conspiracy theories:

    focusing attention on an alleged fraud that didn’t occur is a good way to divert attention from all voter suppression that really has occurred and has been steadily ramping up ever since Republicans on the Supreme Court gutted the Voing Rights Act – and got even worse this year after Republicans blocked legislation that could have provided voters and election officials with more protection.

    • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
      4·
      1 month ago

      you also mention that we don’t know the extent of the voter fraud that occurred, that there certainly was voter fraud, that exaggerated claims of voter fraud are not widespread.

      and then the conclusion is to be careful of “conspiracies”.

      that doesn’t track.

      1. we’re not sure how much of the rainforest corporations have destroyed.

      2. We know that corporations have certainly destroyed large parts of the rainforest.

      3. therefore, if you hear people talking about corporations destroying too much rainforest, it might develop into a dangerous conspiracy, so report it for disinformation?

      no.

      voter suppression is and has been a real and significant problem, people should be aware of it. reporting hyperbolic disinformation should be a supportive paragraph to this point, not the conclusion or title, especially when violent calls to action are not a problem on the democratic side…

      as you say, hyperbolic claims only manifest sporadically on a couple message boards.

      that is not the same as an entire political party simultaneously claiming that their election was stolen and then violently attacking the capitol and the two should not be correlated.