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, and therefore accountability and change, all but impossible.
Starting in 2023, Pluro Labs applied new, AI-enabled research technology to analyze a growing trend of real-world harassment and interference in local US elections on a leading social media platform.
Our findings uncovered 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 , which depicts incidents in 20 US states, includes election law-breaking and has led to violence at polls, while inciting harms against election workers and safe election process. Worst, many actors involved use social media to make money through this activity - comprising an online economy fueling harms to safe and secure elections.
This ongoing 'engine of harm' - through both real world interference and disinformation - poses 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