ISD’s Head of Research Melanie Smith spoke with journalist Parmy Olson for Bloomberg about Facebook and Meta’s role in the spread of election misinformation ahead of the US midterms. Melanie provided evidence where Meta platforms (Instagram, Facebook) failed to appropriately label posts that consisted in conspiracies and election fraud narratives. Some of those examples included groups looking to recruit election poll watchers to intimidate voters on election day, a Facebook video by Florida Representative Matt Gaetz saying the election was stolen, and more.

Just two weeks away from the elections, Melanie told Bloomberg that there is ‘little evidence Facebook is better at stopping conspiracy theories now than it was in 2020’, stressing that many social media companies are failing to meet their own commitments when it comes to election integrity.

Parmy draws on Melanie’s research and opinion to emphasize that Meta has not giving priority to countering mis- and disinformation in the lead up to the elections, but is instead spending more time building the virtual Metaverse.