Civil rights coalition: ‘No end in sight’ for Big Tech misinformation ‘crisis’

A coalition of consumer and civil rights groups on Thursday released a report that claimed online disinformation surrounding elections is an issue that won’t go away any time soon.

“Election misinformation and disinformation are not anecdotal or seasonal,” reads the analysis, set to be released next Thursday, according to The Washington Post.

“Lies — particularly the brand of election-denialism rhetoric that rose in 2020 — have been ubiquitous online for years, and this crisis has no end in sight.”

The Change the Terms coalition, made up of 60 different organizations including civil rights group Color of Change and nonprofit watchdog Common Cause, warned that election-related disinformation spreads throughout the year, leading to “harassment of election officials” and “election-related hoaxes and violence.”

The scathing report found that companies Meta, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube have failed to take the adequate steps to fight disinformation, which the coalition argued might include banning public figures who spread election conspiracy theories.

“We went to the brink of violence and saw the effect of social media’s influence on January 6th,” said Nora Benavidez, director of digital justice and civil rights at Free Press, a media advocacy group that helped write the report.

“Despite that, the companies are doing no better. They have failed to clearly update their systems in time for the elections.”

Before the 2020 election, officials at Big Tech firms like Facebook and Twitter rolled out new policies to moderate content that included misinformation about elections and promoted acts of violence. In the lead-up to the presidential election, Twitter labeled several of former President Trump’s posts as containing misinformation.

Following the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, the former president’s handle was permanently banned from the platform.

However, Change of Terms claimed that policies that were implemented by tech giants were belated and ineffective.

The coalition said that it met with tech companies this summer to share preventative steps against misinformation leading up to election season, but that few of its recommendations were followed.

Social media companies disagreed with the Change the Terms coalition’s characterization of their actions.

“Inciting violence against poll workers or alleging the 2020 U.S. presidential election was stolen or rigged is not allowed on YouTube, and we enforce our policies regardless of the speaker,” YouTube spokeswoman Ivy Choi told the Post.

A spokesperson from Twitter added that the tech company has “taken deliberate, meaningful steps to elevate credible, authoritative information about the U.S. midterms, and to ensure misleading information isn’t amplified.”

The Hill has reached out to Meta, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok for comment on the report.