As foreign disinformation flourishes, a study finds outrage is key to its spread
The Washington Post
Talk of election falsehoods died down after President-elect Donald Trump won, thanks in part to Vice President Kamala Harris’s relatively prompt concession. It was Trump’s side that had been prepared to mount claims of fraud if he had lost, and that proved unnecessary.
That doesn’t mean the problem of election misinformation has gone away.
A report from the nonprofit Issue One, shared with the Tech Brief ahead of its recent publication, finds that foreign governments managed to spread at least 160 false narratives in the United States in 2024 via social media, with Russia the leading purveyor. About half those narratives aimed to divide Americans on foreign policy issues, such as the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, while the other half focused on domestic U.S. politics, often targeting Harris and President Joe Biden.
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