Political Misinformation in America
- Mar 31
- 3 min read
By: Raashi Khamkar
In today’s American society, the political world heavily dictates our lives. Many Americans utilize forms of social media to gain knowledge on diplomatic occurrences within the nation and sometimes the world. However, current social media systems lack regulation of truthful news sources. Posting on social media is simplistic, which makes it easy for anyone to spread misinformation. In the political world, online resources are weaponized against other opponents. Because America is run as a democracy, a person’s vote counts for how their own country is going to be run, but one simple misinformative post can shift an entire person’s perspective. It is common to see misinformation used to attack a political opponent, and many people fail to research further than a basic Instagram or TikTok post. It has become so integrated in our lives that its normalization has prevented us from recognizing how damaging a social presence is when determining who is in charge of running our country. (New America, 2023)
Artificial intelligence has been a key supporter in fueling political misinformation. In 2024, Donald Trump posted AI-generated photos of Taylor Swift endorsing his campaign on Trump’s social media app, Truth Social. The photo incorporated a photo of Uncle Sam, replaced with Taylor Swift, stating “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.” In reality, Taylor Swift has publicly endorsed Kamala Harris via an Instagram post. With the rise of social media, twisting an individual's political beliefs has been easier than ever.
Additionally, there were claims that Kamala Harris was wearing an ear monitor during her presidential debate with Donald Trump on September 10, 2024. Sparked by conservative social media users as well as the Russian state media, her earrings were said to be ear monitors that were feeding her information to create rebuttals in her debate. However, there was no evidence proving that she was being given information through an earpiece. This was used as a way to discredit Kamla’s campaign to dilute her voter base from supporting her. (WebPurify, 2024)
However, political misinformation isn’t correlated to a single side. After the presidential election results in 2024, left-leaning individuals started creating theories that 20 million votes were missing after Kamala Harris’s defeat. These theories were based on comparisons from the 2020 election totals. These theories went viral on social media even though they weren’t true.
One prominent theory made by the left was that Donald Trump’s attempted assassination during one of his political campaign rallies was staged to garner attention and sympathy to gain empathetic followers. However, this is not true and wouldn’t make sense as he still faced an injury that severely impacted his health. (New York Times, 2024)
Political misinformation through addictive social media has spread like wildfire. The general population using these platforms does not do further research, which contributes to the growing political illiteracy. In many cases, political misinformation can also be seen as a way to fuel the exponential divide in America between the two dominating political parties. Using misinformation to promote one party over another causes people to be more willing to choose sides. Extremists, as well as those who are rooting for the divide, intend to perpetuate these messages while refusing to acknowledge the social repercussions on American society. When it comes to maintaining an informed view, it’s important to verify important information to ensure it is reputable.
Works Cited
Tiedemann, A. (August 21, 2023). Why Americans Crave Fake News. New America
Meyer, J. (September 20, 2024). Getting facts straight: 10 must-read examples of US election-related viral misinformation in 2024. WebPurify.
https://www.webpurify.com/blog/examples-of-us-election-viral misinformation/#:~:text=Former%20President%20and%202024%20candidate,the%20image%20of%20the%20crowd.
Thompson, S and Hsu, T. (September 3, 2024). Left-Wing Misinformation Is Having a Moment. New York Times.
Comments