Disinformation, one of the biggest threats to the 2024 elections

Experts on the electoral issue agreed that the officials in charge of the 2024 presidential elections must reinforce security and strengthen the electoral infrastructure, but they also warned that we must remain alert about fake news.

During the video conference: “What threats loom over the 2024 US elections? Are we prepared to face them?”, organized by Ethnic Media Services, several panelists spoke about what they consider the most dangerous threats to the 2024 elections.

Gowri Ramachandran, deputy director of the Brennan Center's government and elections program, said one of the things they are doing is advising election officials to redouble efforts to strengthen the security and resilience of electoral infrastructure to avoid interruptions to voter access to the polls.

“This can occur when there are problems with electoral equipment, a shortage of poll workers, and problems with the voter registration database.”

He stated that recommended practices include making a backup copy of the database with the records before the election, and having enough emergency ballots.

“So if there are problems with the machines, the lines of voters can move forward.”

And another tip is to test the capacity in advance so that if there is high participation, the systems run smoothly.

However, he said What worries you most about the 2024 election,

“There is also a lack of poll workers when they feel unsafe due to threats or harassment. That is why we recommend that states and electoral officials take action so that workers see that their safety is a priority.”

Nora Benavidez, lawyer and director of digital justice and civil rights at Free Press (FP) said that Twitter and other companies have stopped prioritizing the health of the content on their platforms.

“In the technology responsibility space we are always in this position of having to somehow legitimize that the world online has offline consequences.”

He pointed out that this is happening even with traditional media outlets like CNN and the LA Times that take up misinformation originating on social media, and turn it into stories without verifying that it was false.

“They have had to retract or correct stories that were poorly vetted and that originated online. So there is a porous relationship between what happens on a social media site and how it moves and is inserted into traditional news media.”

He indicated that there are several things that companies must do to safeguard the integrity of the election.

“All companies need to reinstall proactive and protective policies by February 2024 and keep them in place next year.”

He argued that the threat of insurrection u Another type of infiltration is not only more acute during the election week but there are threats that can occur at various times prior to the electoral certification process and in its surroundings. 

“Therefore, these various Interventions on the platforms must be maintained, even after the election and until the inauguration.”

William T. Adler, deputy director of the elections project at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said that managing elections has always been difficult and has become incredibly complex.

“As we have incorporated technology into the process, election officials have become somewhat information technology (IT) managers, and since 2020 have faced public threats.”

He said a new survey indicated that 31% of 1,000 local election officials surveyed left their jobs due to personal safety concerns and threats. 

While both 11% of respondents have considered leaving for safety reasons; and more than a third of them will be able to retire before 2026.

“This results in less institutional knowledge about how to handle an election, which can lead to more errors in elections and weakens electoral confidence

Sam Gregory, executive director of Witness.org, said that starting last year, they have seen an increase in the generation of images and audio that allows the creation of a text-mimicked voice as well as the use of artificial intelligence in the context of disinformation in global elections.

“We are seeing the misuse of these tools in a particularly political and electoral context, and there is concern because they create a pattern.”

He said that we are also facing the generation of memes, and it is becoming easier to create images that look real and that can be shared in a variety of contexts. 

“There are a variety of actors in this type of scenario. There are official campaigns, agents, and disinformation actors used in electoral contexts.”