As midterm election fraud falsehoods began to gain momentum Tuesday, former President Donald Trump jumped on any allegation that this week's election was rigged. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo
By Mark Scott
11/09/2022 12:51 PM EST
One of the most powerful voices spreading election-fraud conspiracy theories online on Tuesday was a user who’s been banned from both Facebook and Twitter for nearly two years: Former President Donald Trump.
Trump spent Election Day posting unfounded allegations on his own Truth Social social media network, as well as on his channel on the encrypted messenger Telegram. Those platforms are far smaller than Facebook and Twitter, and state officials quickly debunked the claims.
But his accusations boomeranged onto more mainstream platforms as MAGA candidates, high-profile influencers and voters shared his allegations far and wide.
It represents a marked shift in the social media landscape that was once solely dominated by the likes of Facebook and Twitter — and offers a hint of how hard it will be for even powerful platforms to contain false or misleading statements by the former president if, or when, he launches his campaign for the 2024 presidential election.
Over the last two years, as major social media platforms have begun policing content more carefully, a cottage industry of smaller platforms, such as Gab, Gettr and Parler, have sprouted up to cater to a primarily far-right audience eager for fewer restrictions on what they can say online.
These...
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