Social-Media Platforms Are Suppressing Useful Information for Voters, Continuing Their Retreat from Election-Integrity Commitments

WASHINGTON — Recent reporting and research have indicated a trend of declining social-media engagement on public posts that provide information about voting. These reports have extensively documented this on Meta-owned platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Threads, that have hundreds of millions of users in the United States.

In April, Free Press analyzed 12 major technology companies’ readiness to address political disinformation on their networks. We found that the problem isn’t just limited to Meta; none of the platforms are adequately responding to the scourge of inaccurate election information spreading across their networks in advance of November’s vote. 

According to recent research from Free Press ally Accountable Tech, Meta has largely decided to stop fact checking the flood of election-related lies across its platforms. Instead, the social-media company is down ranking or hiding all political commentary, including helpful information about exercising the right to vote. Accountable Tech studied leading influencer accounts on Instagram and found that Meta was limiting the reach of political content on the platform, with engagement plummeting 65 percent after the tech company’s February 2024 announcement that it planned to “no longer recommend content about politics.” 

Subsequent reporting by The Washington Post found that a popular Instagram user’s audience declined an average of 63 percent every time she used the word “vote” in a post. This included informational and nonpartisan posts about the voting process itself.  

Free Press Senior Counsel and Director of Digital Justice and Civil Rights Nora Benavidez said:

“We’re less than twenty days away from the U.S. elections and instead of bolstering integrity and preparedness plans, social-media companies are continuing to roll back previous commitments. This spring, Free Press led a coalition of more than 200 groups that urged the top tech companies to implement basic interventions to protect platform integrity in 2024. Only a handful of the companies we contacted even responded, none with more than two pages of detail about their election plans. Our analysis found that none of the major platforms — including Meta, TikTok, YouTube and X — have committed to moderating ‘Big Lie’ content. None of the platforms have committed to staffing up trust and safety teams or content moderators. 

“Instead, we’ve found that platforms are retreating further from basic user and democracy protections. TikTok just laid off hundreds of content moderators. Meta has begun downranking voter information, including useful and critical content about the democratic process. Twitter has continued to force Musk’s many election lies on users, whether they follow him or not. YouTube has entirely washed its hands of accountability, refusing to respond to repeated questions from Free Press, our research allies or investigative reporters.

“Most voters will use some social-media app this election cycle, with many using social media as their primary source of information about the voting process and other political news. These are urgent moments in which platforms must protect information integrity and stem the dangerous rise of lies that are already inciting threats of violence against immigrant communities and poll workers. These companies have the know-how to implement integrity-saving measures. They have the resources to invest in human moderators and staffing. But over and over again these platforms demonstrate their true values when we see where they choose to place their dollars — and where they choose not to. 

“The current status of platform commitments is basement-level, showcasing how little democracy matters to these companies. Left holding the bag — and the brunt of the labor to separate election-related facts from fiction — is the American public. 

“We will continue to pressure major social-media platforms to reinstate existing election-integrity policies and fully staff critical platform-integrity teams to ensure more efficient enforcement during this democracy-defining moment in U.S. politics."

Background:
The Free Press-led Democracy Is … initiative includes more than 20 civil-society groups that are calling on media and tech companies to prioritize truth over sensationalism, accountability over profits and democracy over division. The coalition has provided concrete steps for media companies and technology platforms to take to respond to communities’ needs. Throughout the fall, Democracy Is … will host events and provide tools for concerned people and workers in media and tech to hold the industry accountable and safeguard information integrity ahead of and following the U.S. elections.