Are you unintentionally spreading election misinformation?

You’re scrolling through social media when you stumble across new information that gets you fired up. Do you take the time to check the source and accuracy of the information, or do you immediately reshare the post?

If you went with the second option, you’re not alone. That’s what those posts are designed to evoke in us. But that is one of the most common ways mis- and disinformation is spread, said Shannon McGregor, assistant professor at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media and a senior researcher with the Center for Information, Technology and Public Life.

Shannon McGregor

The Well spoke with McGregor, who studies the role of social media platforms in political processes, about mis- and disinformation, the ways social media users spread it and how TikTok, one of the newer apps to emerge, is different from other platforms when it comes to political messaging.

What is the difference between misinformation and disinformation?

Both things are false information. The difference is that misinformation is false information that is spread unintentionally or information that’s framed in a way that allows it to be misleading unintentionally. Whereas disinformation has intent behind it — it is false information that is designed to mislead people in some particular way.

How is false information about elections spread on social media platforms?

It’s spread in lots of places, not just on social media platforms, but we do see it reflected on social media platforms. It can be things like posts that mention the wrong date for the election, that give false information about how to register or false information about different types of voting — mail-in versus drop-off versus day-of voting. We also see a lot of disinformation around elections in terms of false information about the sanctity of them — so calling into question the security of elections and things like voter fraud, which are not actually very common at all.

We see it being spread in a couple of different ways.

Most problematically is by elected leaders or by people running for office, because undermining the election and lying about the election is not only spreading disinformation about the election, but elections are how they can be held accountable.

Since 2015 and 2016, we’ve seen a lot of attention directed toward the role of social media platforms in spreading disinformation and potentially undermining political processes — and I think that’s good; we should be interrogating those things — but I think it’s important to think about where that disinformation is coming from.

We also see election disinformation in different politically oriented Facebook groups or WhatsApp groups, so we see it certainly being spread by “regular” people as well. But I suspect that most of that stems from the cues that they’re getting from political leaders who are sharing that same information.

As TikTok gains popularity, does it bring any unique challenges?

There are certainly some of the same issues, which is that TikTok, like all the other social media platforms, has content moderation policies about election disinformation — it’s not allowed — and that type of information is supposed to be moderated, but like all other platforms, content moderation at scale is very hard to do. I do think that most platforms’ teams working on this are trying their best, but it’s not perfect, so stuff gets through.

So, in some ways, it’s just like other social media platforms, but a couple of things make it different.

One is that it’s video-based, and that is just harder to moderate. We don’t have as advanced technical capabilities for monitoring the content in videos as we do for things that are in text or even in still images. It’s not the only place where we have video, but on TikTok, that’s all there is.

Another challenge is that TikTok doesn’t allow political advertising or political influencers. That’s a problem for false information around the election and politics because it means the platform has less information about who the political actors on the site are. If you don’t have a mechanism like, for example, Facebook has, where you have to register if you’re going to place ads and they have to verify that you are who you say you are, you have less information about what’s going on politically in that space, which makes it harder to moderate any content around it.

What are the dangers of consuming news through social media?

One of the dangers of getting political news on social media is the same as if we get all our news only in one place — which is, you’re not necessarily getting a big picture.

We see false information on social media, but we see it on television news, in people’s podcasts, streaming shows, et cetera. I think it’s important to contextualize that social media is just one place where this is playing out. It’s absolutely an important one, but all the best content moderation in the world on every social media platform is not going to solve this problem, because the problem is that people who are in elected office are lying about elections.

Getting your information about politics or about elections from any social media platform is not inherently good or inherently bad — it’s about the quality of the information that you are getting, whether that’s through accounts that you’re following or what’s being surfaced algorithmically, like on the For You page on TikTok, in your Twitter feed if you’re using the algorithmic version, on Facebook, et cetera. That’s a purposeful thing, then, that people have to be cognizant of if they are seeking out that information on these platforms.

Most people are not seeking out political information on these platforms, so what can be worrisome is, if they start getting it and they’re not someone who’s very politically interested, are they going to be able to judge the veracity or the quality of that information in the same way as someone who’s seeking out political information all the time?

Although, of course, there are plenty of bad actors who are very purposely spreading disinformation about the election, there is also a lot of quality information about politics and about the election on all sorts of platforms, including TikTok. So I think it’s about trying to prioritize that, and that’s for the platforms to do.

For us, it’s thinking about, how can we purposively create that quality information environment if we do want to learn about politics or elections? And if we don’t, how can we deal with and process information if we do get those sorts of posts that show up for us even if we’re not seeking them out?

What can social media users do to avoid misinformation and disinformation, especially leading up to the elections?

If you do want this information curated purposively, follow news organizations that actually report news, follow journalists who report on elections, follow candidates that you’re interested in, follow government bodies that oversee elections.

Another thing that people can do, maybe for themselves, but also for the broader community, is report election mis- and disinformation when you see it; it’s super easy to do across all the platforms. I feel like that’s our community service, to report those things when we see them.

Another thing that people can do is if you come across information that makes you either really, really happy or really, really mad, and it’s new information, that’s a moment to just take a pause before you reshare it or comment on it. Check it out someplace else; try and find another source for it before you end up spreading that information. Most of this information is designed to play on our sense of self, different aspects of our identity. Those things are really important to us, and we tend to have emotional reactions to them.

We’re not aiming for perfection — and it’s probably not possible — but it’s just a thing to be mindful of.