Perspective: Truth decayAmericans Could Be a Bigger Fake News Threat than Russians in the 2020 Presidential Campaign
Russians and others won’t stay out of 2020. But they’ll be able to amplify US-created disinformation and have more time to disrupt 2020 in other ways. While much of the public and media attention has focused on foreign attempts to influence the results of U.S. elections, the fact is actors like Russia and Iran are not the only players we need to worry about for 2020. If anything, domestic actors are poised to be the bigger information threat.
A series of fake websites appeared a few weeks ago and pretended to be official campaign websites of Democratic presidential candidates. Then, in the days before the first Democratic debate last month, I watched users on 4chan, an imageboard website with a large far-right member base, eagerly discuss plans to spread disinformation about the candidates on social media in what they see as the next information war. In one thread, hundreds of users discussed photos and memes they could make to turn voters against Democrats.
Cindy L. Otis writes in USA Today that “for those of us who analyze disinformation, it has started looking a lot like the run-up to the 2016 election. The surprising thing? Americans were behind both of these ‘fake news’ operations.”
She adds: “While much of the public and media attention has focused on foreign attempts to influence the results of U.S. elections, the fact is actors like Russia and Iran are not the only players we need to worry about for 2020. If anything, domestic actors are poised to be the bigger information threat.”
