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Tracing the disinformation campaign on mail-in voter fraud

Research from Yochai Benkler, Casey Tilton, Bruce Etling, Hal Roberts, Justin Clark, Robert Faris, Jonas Kaiser, and Carolyn Schmitt shows that elites, mass media play an important role in spreading voting misinformation.

“We constantly talk about social media disinformation, Facebook fact checking, or counterintelligence against Russian interference. But our research suggests that these play a secondary role in the most important disinformation campaign likely to affect voter participation and public perceptions of legitimacy of the election’s outcomes,” Benkler said.

Read the report or read more in The Harvard Gazette and Columbia Journalism Review

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Projects & Tools 02

Media Cloud

Media Cloud is an open source, open data platform that allows researchers to answer complex quantitative and qualitative questions about the content of online media.

Public Discourse in the U.S. 2020 Election

Studying digital media ecosystems and political discourse related to the U.S. presidential election


Publications 01

Oct 1, 2020

Mail-In Voter Fraud: Anatomy of a Disinformation Campaign

Working paper shows Disinformation Campaign Surrounding the Risk of Voter Fraud Associated with Mail-in Ballots Follows an Elite-Driven, Mass Media Model; Social Media Plays a Secondary Role in 2020

Working paper explores disinformation campaign about mail-in voter fraud