Tracking Facebook’s Election Misinformation ‘Super-Spreaders’


Tracking Facebook’s Election Misinformation ‘Super-Spreaders’SummaryHow "Super-spreaders" Were IdentifiedNote about the storiesNote about the identified accountsElection Myths Identified by NewsGuardList of Identified Accounts and Dataset


Summary

 

How "Super-spreaders" Were Identified

 

Note about the stories

"The false stories we identified were typically variations of the myths we identified and debunked. Some stories included multiple myths from this list, while other articles did not fit neatly with one of the myths we identified. Nevertheless, all the articles we identified advanced inaccurate information about the voting process."

Note about the identified accounts

"This list is, of course, a work in progress. The accounts listed may not be the most frequent offenders or be the publishers of false voting or election information with the largest audiences. And the examples we list for each page do not necessarily represent an exhaustive list of all the times the page published election-related misinformation."

 

Election Myths Identified by NewsGuard

Links below take you to the NewsGuards site for more on the myth/counter myth.

  1. MYTH: Mail-in voting significantly increases incidences of voter fraud.
  2. COUNTER MYTH: Voter fraud does not exist.
  3. MYTH: Poll watching is always illegal and amounts to voter intimidation or voter suppression.
  4. COUNTER MYTH: Poll watching is legal in all forms, and a candidate can form an “army” of poll watchers to go to precincts and monitor voters, to ensure that they are following all rules.
  5. MYTH: Votes not yet counted at the end of Election Day (Nov. 3, 2020) are illegal and should not be counted.
  6. MYTH: The removal of U.S. Postal Service mailboxes in August 2020 is part of a plot by President Trump and his appointee Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to make it more difficult for people to vote by mail.
  7. MYTH: Living people are fraudulently voting on behalf of dead people.
  8. MYTH: Democrats support “ballot harvesting,” the practice in which political operatives are paid to collect ballots from vulnerable people like the elderly and disabled, and change the person’s vote so that it supports the political operative’s party.
  9. MYTH: Democrats promise violence — in the form of a coup or civil war — unless Joe Biden wins the presidential election.
  10. MYTH: Illegal immigrants can legally register to vote in state and national elections in the state of California.
  11. MYTH: Republican-majority state legislatures plan to refuse to certify their state’s official election results in an attempt to ensure that neither candidate earns 270 votes in the electoral college.

 

List of Identified Accounts and Dataset

Last updated: 10/31/2020

Data can be found here: Google Sheets Doc

Note: These are not ranked or in any particular order.

NumberAccount
1Glenn Beck
2The Federalist Papers
3Donald Trump Is My President
4100 Percent FED Up
5President Donald Trump Fan Club
6Pamela Geller
7David j Harris Jr.
8Law Enforcement Today
9Trumpian Republicans
10Gateway Pundit
11The Common Sense Conservative
12The National Pulse
13Tea Party
14Rock n Roll Never Dies
15Stars and Stripes Forever PAC
16Red White Blue News
17James T Harris
18President Trump Has My Vote
19Viral Patriot
20To The Death Media
21Rush Limbaugh Radio
22MAGA REVOLUTION
23Republican Patriots
24Taking Back America
25Fed Up Americans
26I Support Barron Trump
27Donald Trump for President - Martin County Florida
28Women for Trump
29Conservative Renaissance
30Conservative Momma
31Conservative Firing Line
32PolitiChicks
33QCN
34Team Trump
35Will Johnson
36The Federalist
37Kyle Reyes
38America Supports Law Enforcement
39Greg Palast
40Palmer Report

 


Notes by Matthew R. DeVerna