Pennsylvania ground zero for misinformation spreading as Election Day nears
In these final days before the election, misinformation might be flooding your social media feed.
Even before a single vote has been counted, Pennsylvania is ground zero for false claims of election interference.
The CBS News Confirmed team is vetting videos and claims as fast as they pop up on social media to verify whether they're real.
A viral video claiming to show Bucks County election workers ripping up ballots was posted by an account with a history of spreading Russian disinformation, CBS News Confirmed found.
It's not the first, and officials with the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warn that it won't be the last leading up to and after Election Day.
This week, video of a USPS employee delivering mail was falsely said to show voter fraud in Northampton County, Pennsylvania.
But the US Postal Service told CBS News Confirmed the man seen in the video dropping off ballots at a Pennsylvania polling place is an employee delivering a routine tub of mail. It followed claims on social media that the man was carrying out voter fraud.
The video shows a person questioning the man's actions as he dropped off the ballots at Northampton County Courthouse, saying it looked "suspect."
A USPS spokesperson and the Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure told CBS News that the man in the video is an employee from the Easton post office.
"It is an attempt to create election misinformation," McClure said. "The mere fact that a lie gets shared millions of times on a social media platform doesn't make it true or news."
Videos being posted online and taken out of context are proving to be some of the most prominent forms of misinformation spreading right now, according to Rhona Tarrant, CBS News Confirmed executive editor.
"When a verification producer gets a story, they will make calls to local officials, they will look around online, they'll confirm where something was filmed, when it was filmed, who filmed it, they might talk to the person who filmed it, and they'll also talk to other people on the ground," Tarrant explained. "What we're trying to do is give that context to these claims online, particularly videos, because often those can be the most powerful way to spread misinformation."
CBS News Confirmed also debunked video falsely said to show "illegal voters" bused to a voting location in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
Social media users falsely described the video of people arriving at a satellite voting location in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, as footage of foreigners attempting to vote illegally.
The video, which was taken at the South Park Satellite Election Office, shows a large group approaching the entrance of the office before pausing to have a conversation with someone outside. The video has racked up millions of views on the social media platform X.
In a statement, Allegheny County officials said that the video shows a group of voters who came to apply for mail-in ballots on Saturday and required translator assistance. After speaking to the translator, able-bodied voters joined the back of the line, while elderly and disabled voters were permitted to sit and wait their turn.
County officials said, "Individuals who requested a mail-in ballot this past weekend only would have been given a ballot if they were already registered. Only U.S. Citizens may register to vote."
Officials in Pennsylvania and beyond have warned voters about election disinformation spreading online.
Pennsylvania is considered one of the most important battleground states in the upcoming presidential election. The state will be in the spotlight come Nov. 5 and possibly for days after, depending on how long it takes election workers to count ballots. Officials across the Philadelphia area have shared with CBS News Philadelphia how they're securing the election and how ballots will be counted.
Laura Doan and Erielle Delzer with CBS News Confirmed contributed to this report.
