Right to Vote v. Voter Suppression - How to combat online voter suppression

Constitutional Rights #2 Right to Vote v. Voter Suppression How to combat online voter suppression June 25, 2020 Yaël Eisenstat https://www.brookings.edu/techstream/how-to-combat-online-voter-suppression/utm_campaign=Brookings%20Brief&utm_medium=email&utm_content=90453885&utm_source=hs_email 7.1.20 I was skeptical about this headline, as virtually no elections are held online; but the issue turns out to be online attacks on our faith in the systems we use for voting and the accuracy of election & campaign information. It’s worth a read. ------------- “What does voter suppression look like on social media? And, in the absence of U.S. legislation on the subject, should the company set the rules to ensure that voter suppression does not occur, in any form and at any level, in the digital world? On social media, the most obvious forms include posting false information about dates, locations, and voting procedures, and those are relatively easy to combat with the proper mix of machine learning and human review.” “But what about the less clear-cut cases of voter suppression? The relentless messaging about voter fraud, mail-in ballots, and election rigging are all meant to undermine trust in the electoral process or confuse voters about registration and voting procedures. Allegations of potential voter fraud or spurious claims that the elections will be rigged, as President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed, threaten to confuse voters and discourage them from casting their ballots.” “Currently, the United States lacks laws governing social media’s responsibility to protect our elections. The recent debacle over Trump’s false claims in a series of tweets about the use of mail-in ballots leading to widespread voter fraud laid bare how far behind the U.S. is in updating elections rules to fit the current information ecosystem. While Twitter chose to enforce its civic integrity policy and add a label encouraging users to “get the facts about mail-in ballots,” Facebook chose not to enforce its voter suppression policy. CEO Mark Zuckerberg doubled down on his stance that the company will not fact check political candidates, making it clear that, despite the company’s many public promises to combat voter suppression, they will not do so if it involves enforcing their own policies against Trump.” More on what they propose as resolution in the next posting. Or, you can just go read the article for yourself.