What We're Reading at Issue One
2024 brings the first presidential election subjected to an information ecosystem that can be manipulated by rapidly evolving AI-generated misinformation, raising alarms among democracy advocates. That’s why Issue One is so focused on the intersection of technology reform and election protection.?
Here’s what we’re reading at Issue One:
As over a billion people worldwide will be eligible to vote in democratic elections this year, we’re disappointed to read that the social media company will decommission a tool used to track false information on the platform. This decision follows waves of cutbacks and layoffs that have directly impacted safety and transparency across social media platforms.
CrowdTangle is a vital information tracking tool for researchers and journalists, especially as the proliferation of AI-generated content increases. At this time there’s no suitable alternative to this valuable tool.
Senators say Meta’s Zuckerberg is slow-walking child safety inquiries – Washington Post
More bad news from Meta.
Mark Zuckerberg was one of five CEOs of major social media companies to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee this January. The executives of Discord, Snap Inc., and X (formerly Twitter) joined Zuckerberg on his eighth trip to Congress to answer for the platforms’ repeated failures to ensure online safety for minors.
Members and staff of our Council for Responsible Social Media joined youth activists and surviving family members of the victims harmed by online abuse at the hearing.?
As members of Congress continue to press Meta for answers on the details of both problems and solutions related to youth online safety, we’re not surprised to read that? Zuckerberg and his team are dragging their feet. Big Tech has proved time and time again that they can’t be trusted to protect kids online. That’s why we’ll continue to push for the passage of the Kids Online Safety Act, a bipartisan bill with nearly 70 cosponsors in the Senate. It’s up to Congress to bring this bill to a vote.
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Learn more about the Kids Online Safety Act.
Issue One staff have kept a close eye on the high turnover of election officials in recent years. Last September, we published “The High Cost of High Turnover,” a report that detailed the centuries of collective experience lost in 11 western states since the 2020 presidential election.
Turnover has been, and continues to be, a concern for election administration offices. “We need opportunity to really have some consistency in our funding, in our workforce, in our training, and see this election through,” said #FacesOfDemocracy member Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
Election officials nationwide have called on Congress for more support. Resources — such as regular federal funding for elections — for election officials and poll workers to stay ahead of the curve of election threats are vital, but personal protections are also a necessity. As conspiracy theorists echo violent threats in an attempt to impede the process of our free and fair elections, those at the frontlines of our democracy shouldn’t be caught in the crossfire.
#FacesOfDemocracy member and Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Al Schmidt has a message for both voters and elected officials as we prepare for Election Day 2024: It’s going to take a coordinated effort to uplift reliable information as people make their way to the polls.
Sec.Schmidt is also a member of the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS). Their priority in the coming months is to amplify the messaging of #TrustedInfo2024, a nonpartisan public education initiative that amplifies election officials as the most trusted sources of election related information. .?
Read more about the potential threat of AI-generated misinformation on our elections and why Sec. Schmidt says AI could be a “challenge if it’s weaponized to deceive voters or harm candidates.”