Obstacles for voters
According to experts at the University of Southern California, during the elections
Everyone remembers how the current President DonaldTrump said on July 30 that it would be better to postpone the presidential election in the country in order to avoid resorting to voting by mail due to the threat of COVID-19. He tweeted that general mail-in voting in 2020 could produce the most inaccurate and fraudulent election in history.
Facebook later launched a new campaign to help Americans register to vote and encourage people to vote in the US presidential election.
The press release stated that userssocial networks Facebook, Instagram and Messenger received information about how they can register to vote. A special link posted on social networks redirects users to the online registration page.
In addition, Facebook launched a special hashtag#PledgeToVoteChallenge (challenge: I promise to vote). By using it, people can show that they are ready to vote in elections and “encourage their friends and family to do the same.”
«According to our estimates, this yearWe have helped 2.5 million people register through Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. This is a promising start, but there is still a lot of work ahead, the company said in an official statement.
It is worth remembering the creation of the Information Centerfor voters as part of the platform, a voting information hub with deadlines and instructions on how to vote by mail and other relevant details that Zuckerberg announced in August. The information block will be at the top of Facebook and Instagram “almost every day until the election.” Initially, the information panel was available in the menu, but was not particularly discreet.
Perhaps these efforts are simply not enough.
Formerly Sinan Aral, professor at MassachusettsInstitute of Technology and the author of the forthcoming book “The Hype Machine. How social media is interfering with our elections, our economy and our health - and how we must adapt, ”explained that Facebook needs to make more fundamental changes than creating info centers and blocking political ads before elections are part of the platform's new policy that Zuckerberg is personally about told on his blog in early September.
Downgrading fake news in search resultsand limiting their re-distribution, here's what might help. "All these actions constitute a much more systematic approach, which is not based on what you are going to do the week before the elections, or what you are going to do with a narrow category of political advertising," - said the professor.
What makes the 2020 election unique?
Risk of COVID-19 in the United States, where at the momentMore than 2.6 million people are infected with coronavirus infections, keeping people from going to polling stations, as the Spanish flu did in elections a century ago. And the president’s statements that mail-order voting is a way to deceive the electorate does not help much to achieve high voter turnout.
However, it is the widespread use of mail-in ballots that makes this year’s elections truly unique, USC experts believe.
“Today there are various silts to forcepeople do not participate in elections, questioning the integrity of the elections and claiming that the system is broken, ”explains Christina Bellantoni, professor at the School of Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California and director of the Annenberg Media Center.
Cyberattacks may target 2020 elections
In addition, there are dangers and cyberattacks thatcan reach voters by email and phone. False information resulting from such attacks misleads people about voting locations or mailing times, creating long lines at polling stations or shutting down polls in targeted communities.
Clifford Neumann, Scholar at the InstituteInformation Science and the Department of Computer Science at the School of Engineering at the University of California at Viterbi, said the US electoral process is particularly vulnerable to manipulation due to the convergence of computer addiction, polarized politics, and protection of free speech.
Computers are used throughoutthe electoral process, and cyberattacks will target all aspects of this year's elections. Computers are used for voter registration, receiving political contributions, conducting vote-casting events, and virtually any campaign communication. Election journalists use computers to gather information and publish their stories. Social media provides a medium for the dissemination of information and misinformation, as well as the information needed to target messages to like-minded segments of citizens.
Clifford Neumann
Neumann spoke about cyber threats and attacks forthe USC Cybersecurity Election Initiative, a series of workshops supported by Google that raise awareness of cybersecurity among election and campaign officials.
He said that paper ballots have a decisiveimportance this year amid an increase in cyber attacks on electoral systems. “Opponents of the United States can manipulate the election by hitting the recording and counting infrastructure,” he said. "This threat is very disturbing."
Disinformation technology has never been so easy to influence voters.
New and surprisingly simplein making deepfakes. These fraudulent yet compelling videos can be created in a few hours on a $ 2,000 computer by a competent programmer and posted on social media, said Wael Abdalmagid, a professor at the University of California at Viterbi and the Institute of Information Sciences. He added that USC has developed state-of-the-art disinformation detection technology that can detect over 96% of fraudulent videos in near real time.
Deepfakes have enormous power.They pose a significant and growing risk to elections and democracy. There is so much visual manipulation now that the very concept of “seeing is believing” no longer applies. Deepfakes are dangerous and can influence elections.
Wael Abdalmagid
The features of the human mind make people especially vulnerable to manipulation; this explains the increase in attempts to manipulate the latest elections.
"We, people, are poorly able to distinguish truth from lies", -said Norbert Schwartz, vice rector of psychology and marketing at the USC Dornsife College of Literature, Arts and Science. “People are convinced by messages that are simple, easy to handle and enjoyable. The more attention and effort is required to process information, the more people are looking for something simpler to arrange a message. That which is easy to handle becomes the confidant of truth. "
Schwartz noted that proliferation and fragmentationmedia sources flood the information field with such a huge number of messages that it is simply difficult to sort. We are much more vulnerable to disinformation than we used to be.
Changes in the media confuse people
Indeed, many do not trust fundsthe media, in part because some journalists are leaning towards opinion on their social media more than ever before. Television networks or newspapers were used to provide the general narrative upon which the American political consensus was built.
Bellantoni said fake news couldinfluencing voters, such as a viral video on social media that says guerrilla postal workers can destroy ballots that show someone's voter registration on the envelope.
How IT giants prepare for elections
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YouTube is preparing a series of measures to combat disinformation ahead of the US elections</ p>
The platform will begin to attach an information boxwith fact-checked facts about mail-in voting to accompany any videos that discuss the topic. YouTube will also add several features encouraging users to register to vote. Voter registration searches will point users to an information box at the top of the page that will direct them to the relevant data for each specific state. Users will be able to learn about election registration deadlines and how to check voter registration status.
- Twitter Tightens Rules On Retweets And Winning Claims
The company said it would not allow any of theits users, including candidates, are prematurely claiming victory in the upcoming US elections. The official announcement clarified that a warning label would be added to any tweets declaring victory before a clear projection. The move follows a similar decision by Facebook last month. Twitter will also temporarily change the way retweets work, inviting users to “quote the tweet” and add their thoughts before spreading the message. If users don't add anything, it will appear as a normal retweet.
«Although this adds some friction forthose who just want to retweet, we hope this will encourage everyone to not only think about why they are amplifying the tweet, but will also increase the likelihood that people will add their thoughts, reactions and perspectives to the conversation." Twitter.
- Snapchat reaches out to Barack Obama, Snoop Dogg, and Arnold Schwarzenegger to promote voter registration
During the pre-election period, the work of the exchange applicationMessaging and Media includes partnerships with popular Snapchat users including Snoop Dogg and Arnold Schwarzenegger. All this is to stimulate voter registration. Its election-related materials and tools aim to educate US Snapchat users (many of whom are young, first-time voters) about issues and candidates and ultimately push them to sign up and vote.
“This is the first election in which Generation Z will becasting votes for the president,” said Sean Mills, head of content at Snap. “We believe that young voters will make an impact,” he added, recalling that 80% of Snapchat users in the US are 18 years or older (i.e. eligible to vote). Mills said he and his team have been planning the 2020 election program and coverage strategy since the beginning of the year.
So what should a voter do?
Americans are increasingly retreating into their “tribal groups” and “information bubbles.”
Experts explain that people are now more and moreform an individual informational diet, excluding everything that they do not want to hear. Sometimes this leads to the creation of their own reality, devoid of facts. But this is dangerous - as the researchers note, a democracy in which people cannot agree on facts, or when people have alternative facts and realities, is not sustainable.
John Matsusaka, Executive Director of the Instituteinitiatives and referendums in the USC, said that people have long been voting in accordance with party orientation. However, now that partisanship has become a large part of people's identity.
“American identity politics has changed: people no longer vote according to their church, union or job, ”explains Matsusaka. “People decide how they vote based on their party affiliation, which is often more important to them than questions. We are becoming a tribal country and tribal identity shapes our voices today. ”
As a result, according to Matsusaki, the addictionhas become a large part of people's identity. This means that they see the wrong Americans in the opposite camp. Democracy, however, depends on a political compromise, which he says disappears as the political center collapses.
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