When voters in the U.S. cast their ballots for this year's Midterm Elections, one would hope they're doing so with the most accurate information in mind. But instead, we're learning that disinformation campaigns using AI-based lies are spreading all over
social media, with very little regulation by giant tech corporations.
In fact, Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads), X/Twitter, and Google (owner of YouTube) have all pulled back on any efforts to ensure accuracy on their platforms. So now, AI-fueled lies are spiraling.
Sign the petition to demand accountability and that these corporations shut down disinformation campaigns now!Mark Zuckerberg's Meta refuses to seriously moderate political discussions or claims on its platform. Elon Musk's X, formerly known as Twitter, had previously established internal safety reviews and guidelines for content. Now, those reviews are gone. And YouTube/Google has claimed that restricting the spread of outright lies supposedly "chills" users' political speech. For example, it had previously removed posts that spread lies about the 2020 election with false claims that it was "stolen" or filled with "widespread fraud." Three years ago, it stopped regulating these posts and has allowed them to run rampant.
And it's having real impacts. In Texas, James Talarico, a Democratic candidate for Senate came down with the flu and stepped back briefly to rest and recover. Social media posts began circulating, falsely claiming the candidate had attempted suicide and had been removed to Ohio for treatment at a mental health clinic. In Pennsylvania, ICE arrested an undocumented immigrant. Somehow that turned into social media posts claiming the man had been working for the campaign of yet another Democratic candidate, Janelle Stelson.
The AI-based lies didn't stop there. Stelson's Republican opponent began running official campaign ads based on this social media slop, promoting their claims. Even the Deputy Director of ICE weighed in, releasing an official statement expressing his outrage against Stelson and saying it's "unbelievable" that she would have supposedly employed the detained immigrant.
After the Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed how Russian agents used Facebook to try and influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election,
you would think tech corporations would be more proactive in trying to ban this meddling. That's the bare minimum that voters and the public should be able to expect: trustworthiness, integrity, and transparency. Instead, tech billionaires are choosing ever-more profits for their bursting pockets, exploiting the hold they have over American society.
Help us demand that U.S. state attorneys general hold social media companies, including Meta, X, and Google, accountable for allowing these outright lies to spread, right before a pivotal election. The companies must ban AI-fueled disinformation immediately! Sign the petition!