In recent surveys, one in three US election officials reports feeling unsafe in their jobs, and one in five reports a plan to quit their post. This leaves US election infrastructure dangerously vulnerable at a time of deepening partisan crisis.
Social media is known as a major catalyst in this trend of harm, but the complexity and scale of these platforms makes exposure of harms, and therefore accountability and change, all but impossible.
In 2022, Pluro Labs applied new AI-enabled research technology to complete the first systematic analysis of harassment and disruption in local US elections on one the world's leading social media platforms.
Our findings showed hundreds of videos that depict, glorify, and monetize the harassment, interference, and targeting of local election workers and officials across the United States. This content includes election law-breaking, while driving incitement against election workers and safe election process. Worst, most actors involved, including tech platforms, make money through this activity - comprising a thriving online economy fueling harms to safe and secure elections.
This ongoing 'engine of harm' - through both real world interference and disinformation - is actively posing risks to safe and secure elections in November 2024.
In 2024, armed with newfound data and insight into this trend, Pluro Labs has partnered with nonpartisan leaders in election law, election administration, and law enforcement to counter this threat and deepen resilience ahead of the November 2024 elections.
We are working to:
"After Nightmare Year, Election Officials are Quitting"
New York Times, 2021