SACRAMENTO, Calif. — More than a dozen civic groups signed a letter asking four of the world’s most powerful social media platforms to take action to stop the spread false and misleading information ahead of the recall election of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The letter, addressed to the leaders of Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube, urges the companies to replicate their approach durIng the 2020 presidential election, when the platforms enhanced content moderation, labeled disputed or inaccurate information and highlighted trustworthy information and news sources.
“While those steps were far from perfect, they nevertheless had the material effect of slowing the spread of dangerous lies, conspiracy theories, and attempts to deceive voters,” the letter said.
Recall ballots have already arrived in millions of mailboxes across California, and the “specter of online disinformation to confuse voters, drive down turnout, and interfere with the democratic process” looms large, the letter warns.
The groups cited a slew of conspiracy theories around the recall that have been disproven by fact checkers. One such debunked conspiracy includes a claim that employees of Dominion Voting Systems, a voting technology company that’s come under attack by right-wing groups, work at the Sacramento County Registrar’s Office.
The false claim seemed to spread via Twitter and Facebook over the summer. No Dominion employees are on the county payroll.
The civic groups backing the request include Common Cause, the California Voter Foundation, Decode Democracy, Courage California and the Secure Elections Network.
“In the past several weeks, baseless claims about the integrity of California’s vote-by-mail process, the impact of COVID-19 on voting, and additional conspiracy theories debunked by independent fact checkers have spread online,” the letter says. “As election day approaches, the problem is likely to escalate unless your platforms take immediate action.”
Ann Ravel, policy director at Decode Democracy and former Chair of the Federal Election Commission, said the misinformation often found on social media sites can seriously affect the electoral process.
“At its core, we know that that misinformation does have an impact on democracy,” Ravel, a Democrat, said. “And whether it be voter suppression or whether it be spreading falsehoods about the various candidates that can’t be easily rebutted, all of those things should be identified.”
In the letter, the groups lay out specific requests for the tech giants, asking that they elevate official voting information about the recall, focus on preventing disinformation that is aimed at non-English speakers, prioritize fact-checking of election content, and change their algorithms to demote or downrank electoral misinformation.
“With the proper oversight and protections, your platforms can be helpful tools to promote a strong democracy,” the letter says in closing. “At the same time, if you allow disinformation about elections to spread largely unchecked, your platforms will become known as the dominant threat to a thriving democratic process.”
None of the companies listed in the letter responded to requests from The Sacramento Bee for comment.
Ravel said she is not “entirely confident,” the companies will respond to the letter, but said they’ve indicate a willingness to stem the flow of misinformation in the past.
.“They do understand, I think, that they have an outsized influence on the democratic process, and that they should not be contributing to problems in our democracy,” she said.
