Misleading videos, recirculated months after they were shot, carried unfounded claims that Republican voters were being barred from the polls.
Viral tweets spun early-morning mechanical problems with vote tabulators into elaborate claims of systematic fraud.
And users on the pro-Trump extremist forum The Donald urged armed intervention at ballot counting centers in Georgia, advising, “If it gets violent, shoot first.”
The torrent of misinformation battering American democracy on Tuesday showed how myths built up over the last two years have created an alternative online ecosystem where all unfavorable election outcomes are suspect.
The paranoia and preemptive effort to discredit the results of the midterms found perhaps clearest expression in a headline on a website devoted to disseminating conspiracy theories about the pro-Trump siege of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, an attack propelled in large part by online misinformation. “Expect the steal,” the website warned.
“We’re not looking at single narratives or false claims here and there that happen to go viral,” said Cindy Otis, a former technology executive and CIA analyst who now researches disinformation. “We’re looking at entire social media platforms, independent news commentary websites and social media influencers who are starting from a place of ‘Elections are rigged against conservatives’ and covering the election from there.”
In some instances, the online conversation included calls for violence.