Misinformation and disinformation can be a threat to our democracy. It can divide communities. It can make it harder for people to make informed choices — at the ballot box, at the grocery store and at the doctor's office.
National Public Radio / Life Kit
A team of researchers call into question the conclusions of a widely reported study that found that Meta's algorithms successfully filtered out untrustworthy news surrounding the 2020 election and were not major drivers of misinformation.
Phys.org
Derek Bowens has never had such an important job. He’s the director of elections in Durham County, North Carolina, one of the most-populous areas of a state that’s increasingly viewed as crucial to the 2024 presidential contest.
NBC News / CNBC
This summer, Stephen Richer, the county recorder in Maricopa County, Ariz., ran for re-election as an unabashedly pro-democracy Republican. That was a bold stance in Maricopa, which had been overrun by baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 and 2022 elections.
TIME
Russian disinformation continues to poison U.S. politics via our social media platforms. As the tactics grow more sophisticated, our best defense may be building resilience rather than hoping to eliminate it.
Bloomberg Opinion
In what has become a pattern of spreading vaccine misinformation, the Florida health department is telling older Floridians and others at highest risk from COVID-19 to avoid most booster shots, saying they are potentially dangerous.
CBS News / KFF Health News
In a Sep. 17 blog post, Google announced that, in the coming months, metadata in search, images, and ads will indicate whether an image was photographed with a camera, edited in Photoshop, or created with AI. The company joins other tech companies, including Adobe, in labeling AI-generated images.
TechRepublic
The @KamalaHQ account, which has more than 1.3 million followers on the X social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has made a habit of misleadingly clipping and inaccurately captioning video clips to attack former President Donald Trump.
CNN
In early 2017, when then-presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway referenced a deadly Bowling Green terrorist attack that never actually happened, residents were happy to make jokes and have some lighthearted fun.
Government Technology
During the run-up to the 2022 midterms and its aftermath, DENIAL, a short documentary from The New Yorker, shows the effect of election conspiracies in the crucial jurisdiction of Maricopa County, Arizona, through the experience of one elected official, then-County Supervisor Bill Gates..
The New Yorker
The Republican nominee for president went on live TV and presented an unhinged, debunked Facebook rumor as fact. When corrected (several times) by a moderator, Donald Trump doubled down: “The people on television say their dog was eaten by the people that went there.”
CNN
Billionaire Steve Ballmer of Microsoft and NBA Clippers fame, started USAFacts, which is rolling out a series of educational videos ahead of the November elections.
The Guardian
At least 21 state legislatures have taken steps to reform K–12 media and information literacy education, with California, Delaware, Illinois, and New Jersey passing comprehensive reforms, per the 2024 U.S. Media Literacy Policy Report by Media Literacy Now.
American Psychological Association
Across West Texas’ Permian Basin, the oil industry’s presence seeps into many facets of life. Businesses from hotels to veterinary clinics display oil pump jacks on their signs. An oil derrick is part of the logo for the city of Midland.
Santa Fe New Mexican
The highly anticipated debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris was a combative event in which facts were repeatedly trampled and distorted. In a lengthy exchange on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Trump made several statements that were either false, misleading or unsupported, and Harris got a couple of facts wrong, too..
FactCheck.org
The Annenberg Public Policy Center health survey data finds that the number of Americans believing COVID-19 vaccination misinformation has risen and their willingness to take or recommend vaccination against COVID-19 is lower than in the past.
Penn Today
We live in an age of alternate facts. More and more Americans are getting their information almost entirely from outlets that echo their own political point of view. And then, of course, there's social media, where there are few (if any) filters between users and a wide world of misinformation.
CBS News
A group of leading Black organizations are warning media and voters of disinformation targeting Black Americans ahead of November’s critical election. A letter by Onyx Impact urged Black media to recognize the impact disinformation has on Black voters.
The Hill
It is easy to get distracted by the barbs, swipes and bluster of the ongoing and very public spat between the world’s richest man and a fierce justice on Brazil’s highest court. Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, posts regularly of his contempt for Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes – a man Musk has labeled a 'dictator' and 'Brazil’s Darth Vader.'
The Conversation
Gates, the subject of numerous conspiracy theories, is likely more familiar with misinformation than he’d care to be. But a conversation with his daughter Phoebe further opened his eyes on the issue’s severity, he says.
CNBC Make It
