Misinformation is a danger in the 2024 election. This group is helping voters recognize it
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Misinformation is a growing threat and could impact voters in the 2024 presidential race. While it's not new, some experts believe it's evolving, becoming easier to create and harder to spot.
And with a rapid rise in artificial intelligence technology, it can be a challenge to know what's real and what isn't.
Now, concerned experts have curated some of the most viral pieces of misinformation found on the web into a single database, with the goal of making it easier to spot.
"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth can get its pants on. And that has definitely been accelerated by the age of AI," said Miles Taylor, Chief Policy Officer with The Future US.
That spreading of lies can impact how people perceive candidates, issues, and even elections as a whole, according to security experts. And some think it even poses a threat to democracy itself.
"When we have divergent understandings of what actually is and isn't real or factual, democracy falters," says Peter Adams with the News Literacy Project.
It's why for the 2024 Election, the News Literacy Project launched its online "Misinformation Dashboard."
"It really helps the public draw some patterns into focus and learn how to recognize this stuff when they see it," said Adams.
Adams says having all of this information in one place can be helpful to voters because many fact-checking analyses can be spread across a variety of different sites online. Over the last 14 months, the Project has gathered more than 600 examples of fake, A.I. generated, and misleading pieces of content, everything from fake celebrity endorsements to altered headlines made to look like they're from real news sources and more.
Adams says right now, AI-generated content only makes up a fraction of what his group is seeing put out there.
"We're just seeing a lot more of the simpler sort of 'cheap fakes' that people can make just by switching context or simple manipulations," Adams said.
Taylor notes that assessment may point to what he says is one of the biggest challenges for security officials when it comes to overcoming misinformation. In the politically divisive world in which we currently live, these posts can be very successful because of confirmation bias.
"They'll blow past whether or not that information is actually true because if it validates what they already believe, they're going to take it as gospel and they're going to spread it," said Taylor.
Taylor, whose group works to educate state and local election officials on the influence this kind of misinformation can have and how to combat it, says it will take time for Americans to adjust to this new world in which we live. He compared it to old-school SPAM emails that few people who have grown up in the online age would click on today.
"These are the Nigerian princes in our inboxes asking us to wire $10,000," said Taylor. "Now, most of us see an email like that today and say 'yea, that's crazy, that's SPAM. I'm not going to do it.' But if someone's able to deepfake the sound of a loved one or a candidate you trust or a local official, you might be deceived. And that's what we've got to get ahead of, we've got to prepare for that world we're going into."
But there are things voters can do right now to prepare themselves for misinformation and the 2024 Election. Adams recommends paring down your social media feeds to follow only trusted sources of information. If you have questions or concerns about something you're seeing online, you can reach out to local election offices directly.
Former Pennsylvania Commonwealth Secretary Kathy Boockvar, who oversaw the state's elections in 2020, says the best thing you can do, particularly if you're skeptical about the election process, is get involved.
"Be a poll worker, be a poll watcher, call up your elections office, ask how you can help," Boockvar said. "You will see what an incredibly layered, secure system of elections we have in this country."
You can access the News Literacy Project's Misinformation Dashboard here.
