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.

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???”

…

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.

  • EatATaco@lemm.eeEnglish
    29·
    9 months ago

    This doesn’t show there is some conspiracy, it shows that there could be one. Maybe I should not be so forceful in my dissent, and I should say there is a potential the conspiracy is happening, but neither you nor the other poster has actually offered up any evidence of such a conspiracy. A conspiracy is always just a good way to dismiss things we don’t want to admit are true or might be true.

    • circuscritic
      91·
      9 months ago

      You keep saying conspiracy because it’s easy to discount that label, a label that I never used.

      I wasn’t describing a plot by some old men in a smoke filled room, I was pointing out an example of propaganda used to manufacture consent.

      Unfortunately, the culprit is the system, working as designed. That’s an exponentially more dangerous villain then any cabal could ever be.

      • EatATaco@lemm.eeEnglish
        28·
        9 months ago

        You keep saying conspiracy because it’s easy to discount that label, a label that I never used.

        Because even without outright saying, it’s clearly implied. And, besides, you’ve still provided zero evidence to support the assertion. You are doing what you are accusing me of doing: using a label to assert (or in my case, dismiss) something without evidence.