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Now that we’ve passed the Super Tuesday milestone in the 2024 presidential election season, it’s time to have an honest discussion about the amount of election misinformation that is appearing all across social media. Most likely, the misinformation will only get ratcheted up higher, the deeper that we go into the election season. The stakes are just that high.
Factors behind the spread of misinformation
There are several key factors responsible for the spread of misinformation on social media. Perhaps most importantly, there has been a breakdown in trust in the traditional media. As a result, people have started to look elsewhere for their information, and that can lead to a lot of problems.
Quite simply, people no longer perceive that there are balanced, unbiased, and objective news organizations these days. American society is so polarized right now that people only want to hear the news that they agree with. And that means Trump supporters want to hear bad news about Biden, while Biden supporters want to hear bad news about Trump. It’s just that simple.
And so, with that in mind, it’s no wonder misinformation is being created at such a prodigious rate. Add in the rise of AI, and you have a sort of perfect storm for the rise of misinformation on a grand scale. It’s becoming impossible to tell what’s real and what’s fake, and so the default setting for many people is simply to believe whatever they want to believe.
Can anyone fix this problem?
So, it’s only natural to ask: Can anyone really fix this problem, or are we too far gone as a society? In the past, one might have counted on the government to regulate away the problem, but that’s not going to work this time around. If the current Biden administration attempts to crack down on misinformation, Trump loyalists will claim that they are being harassed, shadow banned, or censored.
And, to be quite frank, there are simply too many tools at one’s disposal that make the spreading of misinformation easier than ever before. According to a recent study by MIT, fake news tends to circulate at a nearly 10 times faster rate than accurate news and diligent reporting. Most likely, this is due to the fact that most news is, well, sort of boring. It only gets exciting when there’s a vast conspiracy involved, or when the news is so polarizing that people can’t help but engage with the content.
That has to be the reason why immigration has emerged as one of the most contentious issues of the 2024 election season. For many voters, immigration is a hot-button issue because your stance on the issue has a lot to do with the way that you view America and the very core of American society. Anytime you can combine patriotism and national identity into a highly-charged topic, you have the beginnings of the sort of social media content that can travel far and wide.
The tipping point
Right now, we’ve reached a tipping point in society. According to Pew, 50% of Americans use social media as a news source. So you have one-half of the country relying on traditional or mainstream media to tell them what to think, and you have another one-half of the country trying to form ideas about the economy, national security, and foreign policy based on what they see on TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook.
So buckle your seatbelt. This election season is going to get crazy. Now that we’ve narrowed down the field of candidates to just two, the gloves are really going to come off.
