CNN —
In 2016, a machine apparently blocked a vote for Donald Trump. In 2018, a video supposedly showed votes being switched. In 2020, a video purported to show ballots being burned.
All wound up being false, and none of them showed what they claimed to show – but on those previous Election Days and the days after it, they cumulatively clocked up millions of views, clicks, and shares across social media.
This Election Day – when tens of millions of people vote across a continent and its territories overseas, not everything can go smoothly.
However, the overwhelming majority of Americans will perform their civic duty and vote without a problem. But in the age of social media and a concerted effort by some to undermine faith in American elections, it’s the irregularities that often get the attention.
There are different kinds of falsehoods that go viral on Election Day – this is where the difference between misinformation and disinformation comes into play. Misinformation is false information that the creator or sharer doesn’t necessarily know is false. Disinformation is the deliberate creation and sharing of false information.
An example of misinformation is a 12-second video that was shared widely on Election Day 2016. A man in Pennsylvania tweeted a video he said showed a voting machine not allowing him to vote for then-candidate Trump – it showed him repeatedly pressing a button for Trump, but the selection on the machine still read Clinton.
The video...
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