Anonymous users are dominating right-wing discussions online. They also spread false information
As the presidential election draws nearer, the spread of bogus information online is getting a huge boost from social media accounts that have been created anonymously.
apnews.com
Anonymous users are dominating right-wing discussions online. They also spread false information
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FILE - The X logo is shown on a computer screen in Belgrade, Serbia, July 24, 2023. Social media accounts who shield their real identities behind clever slogans and cartoon avatars have come to dominate right-wing political discussion online, even as they spread false information. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)
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FILE - Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk addresses the European Jewish Association’s conference, Jan. 22, 2024, in Krakow, Poland. Social media accounts who shield their real identities have come to dominate right-wing political discussion online, even as they spread false information. When a user who uses a pseudonym on the social platform X made a claim against a government website, public figures including Musk immediately started raising alarm. In three days, the claim, which election officials explained was inaccurate, amassed more than 63 million views on X, according to the platform’s metrics. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, File)
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FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Grand Rapids, Mich., April 2, 2024. Social media accounts who shield their real identities have come to dominate right-wing political discussion online, even as they spread false information. When a user who uses a pseudonym on the social platform X made a claim against a government website, public figures including Trump, immediately started raising alarm. In three days, the claim, which election officials explained was inaccurate, amassed more than 63 million views on X, according to the platform’s metrics. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
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FILE - Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., arrives for an interview in Laconia, N.H., Jan. 22, 2024. Social media accounts who shield their real identities have come to dominate right-wing political discussion online, even as they spread false information. When a user who uses a pseudonym on the social platform X made a claim against a government website, public figures including Greene immediately started raising alarm. In three days, the claim, which election officials explained was inaccurate, amassed more than 63 million views on X, according to the platform’s metrics. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
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BY ALI SWENSON AND MELISSA GOLDIN
Updated 11:37 AM EDT, April 6, 2024
NEW YORK (AP) — The reposts and expressions of shock from public figures followed quickly after a user on the social platform X who uses a pseudonym claimed that a government website had revealed “skyrocketing” rates of voters registering without a photo ID in three states this year — two of them crucial to the presidential contest.
“Extremely concerning,” X owner Elon Musk replied twice to the post this past week.
“Are migrants registering to vote using SSN?” Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, an ally of former President Donald Trump, asked on Instagram, using the acronym for Social Security number.
Trump himself posted to his own social platform within hours to ask, “Who are all those voters registering without a Photo ID in Texas, Pennsylvania, and Arizona??? What is going on???”
State election officials soon found themselves forced to respond. They said the user, who pledges to fight, expose and mock “wokeness,” was wrong and had distorted Social Security Administration data. Actual voter registrations during the time period cited were much lower than the numbers being shared online.
Stephen Richer, the recorder in Maricopa County, Arizona, which includes Phoenix, refuted the claim in multiple X posts while Jane Nelson, the secretary of state in Texas, issued a statement calling it “totally inaccurate.”
Yet by the time they tried to correct the record, the false claim had spread widely. In three days, the pseudonymous user’s claim amassed more than 63 million views on X, according to the platform’s metrics. A thorough explanation from Richer attracted a fraction of that, reaching 2.4 million users.
The incident sheds light on how social media accounts that shield the identities of the people or groups behind them through clever slogans and cartoon avatars have come to dominate right-wing political discussion online even as they spread false information.
FILE - Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk addresses the European Jewish Association’s conference, Jan. 22, 2024, in Krakow, Poland. Social media accounts who shield their real identities have come to dominate right-wing political discussion online, even as they spread false information. When a user who uses a pseudonym on the social platform X made a claim against a government website, public figures including Musk immediately started raising alarm. In three days, the claim, which election officials explained was inaccurate, amassed more than 63 million views on X, according to the platform’s metrics. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, File)
The accounts enjoy a massive reach that is boosted by engagement algorithms, by social media companies greatly reducing or eliminating efforts to remove phony or harmful material, and by endorsements from high-profile figures such as Musk. They also can generate substantial financial rewards from X and other platforms by ginning up outrage against Democrats.
Many such internet personalities identify as patriotic citizen journalists uncovering real corruption. Yet their demonstrated ability to spread misinformation unchecked while disguising their true motives worries experts with the United States in a presidential election year.
They are exploiting a long history of trust in American whistleblowers and anonymous sources, said Samuel Woolley, director of the Propaganda Research Lab at the University of Texas at Austin.