Ahead of Midterms, New Demands Urge Meta, Twitter, Google, Tiktok to Remove Disinformation on Election, Abortion & Deplatform Accounts That Violently Threaten Poll Workers

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Anna Zuccaro <anna@unbendablemedia.com>

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Wed 10/26/2022 11:35 AM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, October 26, 2022

CONTACT: Anna Zuccaro | anna@unbendablemedia.com  

Ahead of Midterms, New Demands Urge Meta, Twitter, Google, Tiktok to Remove Disinformation on Election, Abortion & Deplatform Accounts That Violently Threaten Poll Workers 

Women’s Disinformation Defense Project issues new set of demands calling on social media platforms to ban users that threaten poll workers; remove  disinformation related to midterm elections and abortion

New Digital Ad Campaign Warns if Current Policies Remain Unchanged, We Could See an Exodus of Women from Public Office

WASHINGTON, DC -- Citing new evidence of widespread racist and sexist disinformation efforts ahead of the midterm elections this November, the Women’s Disinformation Defense Project (WDDP), a coalition of gender and racial justice groups led by UltraViolet, has released a new set of demands to major social media platforms - Meta, Twitter, Google, and TikTok -- calling for urgent changes to their election-related policies and guidelines.

Despite claims of stopping the spread of misinformation and disinformation by social media companies, trending topics include disinformation about the midterms and election fraud. 

Midterm election poll workers are being threatened with violence, especially in battleground states, and fewer women are running for public office this year than in the last election, likely due to the increase of online harassment and sexist disinformation The WDDP is urgently calling on the the leaders of Meta, Twitter, Google, and TikTok to: 

1. Remove election related disinformation, remove medically invalid disinformation about abortion care, and deplatform accounts that threaten poll workers and users with violence.

   • For Meta this includes implement the above policies across all languages used on Meta platforms, including Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram

2. Depolarize the algorithm and moderation, including the “noteworthiness exemption” loopholes for verified accounts and public figures. 

   • For Meta, this includes: adjustments to your NEQ score and re-implement the “break glass” plan to reduce the spread of election related disinformation, hate, and harassment and promote news coming from non-partisan media and press.

3. Increase transparency about how bad actors causing harm are managed through internal processes, standards, the effectiveness of user reporting, and what investments companies have made toward moderating disinformation and violent content online. 

READ THE EXPANDED LIST OF DEMANDS HERE: https://weareultraviolet.org/social-media-platforms-must-act-against-election-related-violence-disinfo-hate/ 

The WDDP’s demands are supported by UltraViolet, and members of the Women’s Disinformation Defense Project. The demands are cosigned by [LIST OF OTHER ORGS].

“Media outlets and social media platforms have a responsibility to stop the spread of disinformation, whether it’s racist, sexist, or medically inaccurate quack science,” said Bridget Todd, Director of Communications for UltraViolet. “The reality is that disinformation generates profit for these companies. That’s why we are not seeing platforms react swiftly or effectively enough during political election cycles. Anyone can utilize social media regardless of political persuasion, but there is a stark contrast between expressing one’s political beliefs and threatening violence against political candidates and election workers. Further, spreading medically inaccurate content about the safety of abortion care is not just factually inaccurate, it’s physically harmful. With midterms approaching so rapidly, we urge these platforms to heed our advice.”

In conjunction with the demands, UltraViolet and #ShePersisted launched a new, five-figure digital ad campaign urging social media companies, including Meta, Instagram, Tiktok, and Twitter, to be more vigilant about hate speech, harassment, and threats against women politicians, and warning that the failure to do so can result in an exodus of women from government.

VIEW THE VIDEO AD HERE: https://she-persisted.org/our-work/advocating-for-safer-digital-platforms/

This cycle, UltraViolet and the Women’s Disinformation Defense Project (WDDP) are spending  $5 million to help protect candidates like Val Demings (FL), Cheri Beasley (NC), Gretchen Whitmer (MI) and Catherine Cortez Masto (NV) from the GOP playbook of weaponizing sexism and racism to manipulate voters.  The WDDP works to track, preempt and respond to racist and sexist disinformation attacks against women running for elected office - and deployed successfully to defend Kamala Harris in 2020 and Ketanji Brown Jackson earlier this year.