With Russian disinformation on the rise, News Literacy Project helps voters recognize and resist election falsehoods

The Justice Department accused Russia on Wednesday of spreading disinformation regarding the U.S. presidential elections and announced criminal charges, sanctions and the seizure of dozens of internet domains.

Viral falsehoods are a threat to American democracy, but voters can learn how to better identify and resist them.

The News Literacy Project just last month launched the Misinformation Dashboard: Election 2024 to help voters recognize the trends and tactics being used to spread misinformation about the candidates and voting. The dashboard contains more than a year’s worth of debunked claims — more than 600 to date — and interactive graphs.

According to examples collected by NLP, about a quarter of all falsehoods about candidates’ policy platforms touch on economic positions like supposedly taxing the poor, spending on border security and aid to Ukraine.

Claims falsely alleging that noncitizens are voting in presidential elections are also on the rise, making up nearly a quarter of all election integrity rumors collected in NLP’s database.

Each rumor in NLP’s dashboard has the potential to have been liked, seen or shared on social media hundreds, thousands, or even millions of times. For example, one of the claims included in the dashboard, a rumor that the U.S. “accidently” sent Ukraine $6.9 billion in aid, has been viewed 8.3 million times on X. As of publication, the post remains on the platform.

These divisive themes, the Justice Department said, are being boosted by the Russian influence campaign.  The misinformation dashboard doesn’t cite whether an individual example is part of any organized effort, and it’s important to note that it can be difficult to identify the source of those posts.

Research shows that prebunking – helping people recognize not just individual false claims but larger patterns in the flow of misinformation – is an effective way to help people avoid falling for falsehoods. NLP’s dashboard helps prebunk election misinformation by collecting examples of falsehoods and providing tools to analyze them by topic and by technique.

“Given how quickly falsehoods can congeal into deep-seated beliefs, it’s essential that all Americans learn to recognize viral election misinformation when they see it in their feeds,” Peter Adams, Senior Vice President of Research and Design, said when the dashboard was announced. “Healthy democracies flourish when civic discourse is anchored in accurate, shared understandings of issues and candidates. We hope this dashboard helps people preserve the integrity and power of their civic voices and their votes.”

To access the data in NLP’s dashboard for your own analysis, contact [email protected].