As the presidential election draws nearer, the spread of bogus information online is getting a huge boost from social media accounts that have been created anonymously.
The reposts and expressions of shock from public figures followed quickly after a user on the social platform X who uses a pseudonym claimed that a government website had revealed “skyrocketing” rates of voters registering without a photo ID in three states this year — two of them crucial to the presidential contest.
“Extremely concerning,” X owner Elon Musk replied twice to the post this past week.
“Are migrants registering to vote using SSN?” Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, an ally of former President Donald Trump, asked on Instagram, using the acronym for Social Security number.
Trump himself posted to his own social platform within hours to ask, “Who are all those voters registering without a Photo ID in Texas, Pennsylvania, and Arizona??? What is going on???”
…
Yet by the time they tried to correct the record, the false claim had spread widely. In three days, the pseudonymous user’s claim amassed more than 63 million views on X, according to the platform’s metrics. A thorough explanation from Richer attracted a fraction of that, reaching 2.4 million users.
The incident sheds light on how social media accounts that shield the identities of the people or groups behind them through clever slogans and cartoon avatars have come to dominate right-wing political discussion online even as they spread false information.
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.
The bad guys since high school and in countless tales and yet still in governments and corner suites and at pulpits: *weaponizes it*
You know who you are: *treats it all like team sports* *thinks is player* *is ball*
This is a perfect example of truthful mainstream propaganda.
I have no doubt all of the facts in this piece are correct, but they're also aligned in such a way to suggest to the reader that the real root of the problem is that commoners are allowed to have anonymous social media accounts not tied to a real name or some government ID program.
Oh, cool, a well researched article on right-wing disinformation campaigns. Can't wait to watch the Lemmy liberals accuse leftists of being a part of this without any evidence.
It makes sense. What's the first thing you're going to do when you arrive in a foreign country, when you have no money, don't speak the language, don't know what you're going to do tomorrow, have been through hell after literally walking thousands of kilometres?
Register for voting in the local presidential election of course! You still have your napkin that your communist contact gave you with a quick scribble: "Beeden, good; Troomp, no good".
I think the cult of ignorance is just as prevalent across all political ideologies the left is not better than the right is no better than etc etc. Its all just idiots arguing with idiots about things they don't know or are purposefully ignorant of.