OVT Joins Democracy Groups To Call On Social Media Companies To Combat Election Disinformation Ahead of Midterms

Today Our Vote Texas, along with more than 120 civil rights and democracy groups, joined in a letter to call on social media companies to take pro-active measures to combat election disinformation across platforms ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

You can read more about that letter spearheaded by Common Cause HERE.

The recommendations laid out in the letter detail steps social media giants can put in place now to prepare for the upcoming midterm elections so that disinformation and confusion do not impact voters as they prepare to head to the polls.

The steps listed below are further discussed in the body of the letter which can be found HERE.

• Introduce friction to reduce the distribution of content containing electoral disinformation.

• Focus on preventing disinformation targeting non-English speaking communities.

• Consistently enforce civic integrity policies during both election and non-election cycles.

• Prioritize enforcement to combat the ‘Big Lie’ that sought to make the 2020 election invalid and has fostered unlawful voter suppression legislation in multiple states including Texas.

• Consistently apply civic integrity policies to all live content as a means of combating election disinformation.

• Prioritize fact-checking of electoral content, including political advertisements and posts from public officials.

• Provide real-time access of social media data to external researchers and watchdogs.

• Provide greater transparency of political advertisements, enforcement practices and algorithmic models.

With appropriate and necessary oversight, our social media platforms can be valuable places for promoting strong democracy, fostering healthy discourse and disseminating helpful, truthful information for civic engagement.

It is our hope that the CEOs and leaders of these platforms will recognize their responsibility and valued role in this important work ahead for 2022 and the years ahead.

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Our Vote Texas is a people powered nonprofit committed to advancing voter education and voter rights in Texas through advocacy and outreach.

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Our Vote Texas
https://ourvotetexas.org/
https://twitter.com/ourvotetexas