OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Democratic Secretary of State Steve Hobbs and nonpartisan Pierce County Auditor Julie Anderson agreed on many things Wednesday in their first debate ahead of the November election: that more needs to be done to engage and assure voters of the safety and security of the state’s election system, there should be a push to increase audits to further combat election misinformation, and support for changing the state’s August primary date.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Social media companies are offering few specifics as they share their plans for safeguarding the U.S. midterm elections.
Platforms like Facebook and Twitter are generally staying the course from the 2020 voting season, which was marred by conspiracies and culminated in the Jan.
Facebook failed to detect blatant election-related misinformation in ads ahead of Brazil’s 2022 election, a new report from Global Witness has found, continuing a pattern of not catching material that violates its policies the group describes as “alarming.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — After Russia invaded Ukraine last February, the European Union moved to block RT and Sputnik, two of the Kremlin's top channels for spreading propaganda and misinformation about the war.
Alex Jones is facing a hefty price tag for his lies about the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre — $49.3 million in damages, and counting, for claiming the nation’s deadliest school shooting was a hoax — a punishing salvo in a fledgling war on harmful misinformation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Facebook owner Meta is quietly curtailing some of the safeguards designed to thwart voting misinformation or foreign interference in U.S.
PHOENIX (AP) — The attorney for Arizona's most populous county sent a letter on Tuesday warning a local candidate to stop encouraging voters to steal the pens given to them at polling places on Election Day to mark their ballots.
Election officials in Arizona’s largest county won’t soon forget #SharpieGate — the social media uproar that emerged after the 2020 election based on the false claim that Sharpie pens provided at the polls would ruin ballots before they were counted.
SAN BRUNO, Calif. (AP) — YouTube will begin removing misleading videos about abortion in response to falsehoods being spread about the procedure that is being banned or restricted across a broad swath of the U.S.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The key to dispelling conspiracy theories and misinformation about how elections are run is to confront the lies head on, top state election officials said Wednesday.
Washington (AP) — A conservative TV channel is presenting viewers with an “alternate universe” of how the deadly siege at the U.S. Capitol unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021, a new research report finds.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As bullets and bombs fall in Ukraine, Russia is waging an expanding information war throughout Eastern Europe, using fake accounts and propaganda to spread fears about refugees and rising fuel prices while calling the West an untrustworthy ally.
A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Election officials preparing for the upcoming midterms face a myriad of threats, both foreign and domestic, as they look to protect voting systems and run a smooth election while fighting a wave of misinformation that has been undermining public confidence in U.S.
Twitter said it removes 1 million spam accounts each day in a call with executives Thursday during a briefing that aimed to shed more light on the company's fake and bot accounts as it tussles with Elon Musk over “spam bots.”
A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out.
A U.S. House committee approved a bill Wednesday that would outlaw the distribution of fake or misleading materials resembling census forms or other materials that could prevent people from participating in the nation's head count.
NEW YORK (AP) — Journalists face harassment, fight against misinformation and are keenly aware of the industry's financial troubles and the dim view many Americans have of them.
Despite all that, most love their jobs and wouldn't trade it for something else.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — The flood of disinformation that is spread and amplified on social media represents a threat to fragile democracies, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said during the keynote speech at Harvard University's commencement on Thursday, exhorting graduates to do their part of fight it.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — By now it's as predictable as the calls for thoughts and prayers: A mass shooting leaves many dead, and wild conspiracy theories and misinformation about the carnage soon follow.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Twitter is stepping up its fight against misinformation with a new policy cracking down on posts that spread potentially dangerous false stories. The change is part of a broader effort to promote accurate information during times of conflict or crisis.
Brad Moline, a fourth-generation Iowa turkey farmer, saw this happen before. In 2015, a virulent avian flu outbreak nearly wiped out his flock.
Barns once filled with chattering birds were suddenly silent.
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the state's top election official, accused a fellow Republican at a debate Monday of lying and spreading misinformation about former President Donald Trump's loss in the 2020 presidential election.
QAnon loyalists, COVID deniers, neo-Nazis and a former American president: The list of people banned from Twitter is long, but their exile could soon come to an end if Elon Musk's $44 billion offer for the platform is approved.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A majority of U.S. adults say misinformation around Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a major problem, and they largely fault the Russian government for spreading those falsehoods.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security is stepping up an effort to counter disinformation coming from Russia as well as misleading information that human smugglers circulate to target migrants hoping to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border.
BERLIN (AP) — Twitter says it will no longer allow advertisers on its site who deny the scientific consensus on climate change, echoing a policy already in place at Google.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Beth Bowers grew up in the 1960s and 1970s with parents who marched in protests, wrote letters to members of Congress and voted in elections big and small.
Her father, a World War II veteran, and her mother, an educational counselor, did not use social media sites in their lifetimes.
As governments and social media companies have moved to suppress Russia's state media and the disinformation it spreads about the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin's diplomats are stepping up to do the dirty work.
A Ukrainian beauty blogger whom Russian officials accused of being a crisis actor when she was interviewed and photographed by The Associated Press in a bombed out Mariupol maternity hospital has emerged in new videos that are fueling fresh misinformation about the attack.
LIBERTY, Mo. (AP) — A man who runs a little-known, low-budget radio station in suburban Kansas City says he is standing up for free speech and alternative viewpoints when he airs Russian state-sponsored programming in the midst of the Ukrainian war.
LONDON (AP) — Britain accused Russia of spreading misinformation on Tuesday by posting doctored clips of the U.K.’s defense chief speaking to a hoaxer posing as Ukraine’s prime minister.
Two videos of Defense Secretary Ben Wallace speaking to the imposter were posted on the YouTube channel of Russian prankster duo Vovan and Lexus.
BEIJING (AP) — China on Tuesday said its stance on the Ukraine conflict is “completely objective, impartial and constructive,” and repeated accusations the U.S. is spreading misinformation over reports Beijing has responded positively to a Russian request for military supplies.
Russian state media is spreading misinformation about the location of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in what analysts said is an attempt to discourage resistance fighters and erode support for Ukraine around the globe.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A California doctor known as a leading purveyor of coronavirus misinformation pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge on Thursday for joining the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol last year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As Russia's war in Ukraine plays out for the world on social media, big tech platforms are moving to restrict Russian state media from using their platforms to spread propaganda and misinformation.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California became the first state to formally shift to an “endemic” approach to the coronavirus with Gov. Gavin Newsom's announcement Thursday of a plan that emphasizes prevention and quick reaction to outbreaks over mandated masking and business shutdowns.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California became the first state to formally shift to an “endemic” approach to the coronavirus with Gov. Gavin Newsom's announcement Thursday of a plan that emphasizes prevention and quick reaction to outbreaks over mandated masking and business shutdowns.
NEW YORK (AP) — Like Facebook and Twitter, Spotify is learning the limits of deflecting responsibility for what is said on its platform.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The upcoming midterm elections are emerging as a rallying point for domestic extremists and foreign adversaries seeking to disrupt the U.S.