The 2020 United States presidential election with Democrat Joe Biden running against Republican Donald Trump was a turning point in American politics. This election was full of political games with the whole nation on the edge of their seats and one thing that stood out was the widespread disinformation. This blog post will look at the role of disinformation in the 2020 US election using democratic erosion scholarship materials and make the argument that disinformation poses a threat to democracy.
Disinformation is false information deliberately and often covertly spread to influence public opinion or obscure the truth. Disinformation is not a new concept and has grown rampant within the new digital age and the rise of social media. Disinformation can be spread in many ways whether it be through news stories or posts on social media. From the electoral process to candidates and other issues, the spread of disinformation in the 2020 US election skyrocketed and ran rampant. Disinformation during the election sought to achieve the undermining of confidence in the election, polarization, and suppressing voter turnout. Undermining confidence in the election involved false claims about election fraud and rigged results, disinformation doubled down existing political division, and it deterred some demographics from voting by broadcasting misleading information about the voting process.
Confidence in the 2020 US election was undermined through a spread of disinformation about election fraud and rigged results through social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. According to a peer review article in the Misinformation Review at Harvard Kennedy School many social media users believed false claims that former President Donald Trump had been snubbed and was the true winner of the election. Former President Trump himself was also responsible for spreading false and misleading claims about election fraud. A particularly crucial factor in the spread of this disinformation was the actions of foreign actors who were involved in spreading false narratives during the election to create conflict and erode trust in the democratic process. This factor is discussed in a classified report by the National Intelligence Council addressing the involvement of foreign actors’ intentions to influence or interfere with the 2020 US federal elections. Russian president Putin and the Russian government pushed narratives on social media to influence US voters against President Biden’s candidacy.
Disinformation also set out to increase polarization during the 2020 US election doubling down existing political division. The rapid spread of disinformation during this time was facilitated by the rapid spread of false narratives through social media platforms. Platforms were exploited to feed misleading information, creating echo chambers where individuals from both parties were exposed to content that reinforced their existing beliefs. False claims about election fraud and biased reporting created further distrust in the electoral process. This disinformation reinforced partisan divides and also led to challenges for people with different political perspectives to engage in constructive dialogue. The result of this erosion of trust in traditional media fueled polarization. A Pew Research Center article explores this difference in reporting during the election and explains how different parties get their information from different sources. This evidence shows partisan polarization has grown with the use and distrust of media sources due to disinformation.
Disinformation targeted specific demographics with false narratives about the voting process. This caused confusion and mistrust during the election, for example, there were false claims about mail/in votes being fraudulent which disproportionately affected older voters who were more likely to use this method. There were also efforts to suppress minority votes through disinformation about polling locations and voting procedures. Disinformation aimed to create doubt and discourage certain demographics from participating in the electoral process. There was a plethora of social media posts aimed at discouraging voters from casting their ballots, according to an NPR article this disinformation is dangerous because they’re widespread and tapped into voters worries.
All these things disinformation set out to do during the 2020 U.S. election: undermine constituents’ confidence in elections, cause more polarization, and deter some demographics from voting are all things that are dangerous to democracy. Disinformation during the 2020 U.S. election was so powerful it caused the storming of the capitol on January 6, 2021, with Republican partisans truly believing fake stories spread throughout social media. The furtherance of polarization created by disinformation during this time can also prove to be dangerous to democracy as both sides become more radicalized and unwilling to compromise. Finally, the impact disinformation had on the electoral process should be frightening to any democracy that prides itself on the right to choose. For these reasons the U.S. 2020 election exemplified how disinformation is dangerous to democracy.
Works Cited
Bond, Shannon. “Black and Latino Voters Flooded with DisinformationIn Elections Final Days.” NPR. 30 October 2020.
Merriam-Webster, Disinformation.
Jurkowitz, Mark. Mitchell, Amy. Shearer, Elisa. Walker, Mason. “U.S. Media Polarization and the 2020 Election: A Nation Divided. Pew Research Center. 24 January 2020.
National Intelligence Council. Foreign Threats to the 2020 US Federal Elections. 10 March 2021
Pennycook, Gordon and Rand, David. “Research note: Examining false beliefs about voter fraud in the wake of the 2020 Presidential Election.” Harvard Kennedy School. 11 January 2021.
Payton Jeffers
Hello Damara,
I found your blog very insightful in discussing the negative impacts of propagating misleading or false information in regard to the 2020 elections. Your connections to the media and the digital sector as a means of publishing inaccurate information is a really important point to understand. Within this day and age mostly if not all people use some sort of technology and the ability for news and social media platforms to take advantage of this is dangerous as it can lead to disinformation. The manner in which disinformation was utilized to polarize the 2020 elections is reminiscent of how some populist leaders gain the support of the people. The usage of misleading information in the 2020 elections is reminiscent of how populist leaders use disinformation to win over and gain the support of the public. They abuse the media in a way to propagate their ideologies in order to win the election. With this however, if the populists were to lose the elections they would ultimately blame the media for spreading “false” narratives or information, which can deepen citizen’s distrust in the electoral process especially if the followers of the populist leader believe the election to be rigged.
Drew Anderson
Hi Tamara,
This was an interesting and informative read. Disinformation is a huge issue in politics, especially given its newfound capacity to spread extremely quickly and resist debunking via social media. It can sometimes be tough to truly reckon with the fact that there is a sizeable contingent of this country’s population that truly believes, contrary to an overwhelming body of evidence, that the election results in 2020 were fake. That such disinformation can also inspire violence and terror, as in the case of the Capitol riots on January 6, is similarly distressing. One point regarding disinformation was raised by my professor during class this semester that I found particularly interesting/disturbing. The body of research that has been conducted thus far regarding correcting and debunking disinformation indicates that even when individuals who have bought into political misinformation have it directly corrected and disproven, to the extent that they will even acknowledge it as untrue, there is no associated change in political behavior or partisan worldview. If disinformation is causing all these issues, and correcting it doesn’t really seem to help all that much, where do we even go from there? I’m not certain but I thought it was interesting.
Drew Anderson
**Damara, I apologize for the typo!
Liv Oyen
Hello Damara,
Your blog post covers the spread of disinformation in the 2020 elections. You discuss why disinformation occured, how foreign actors influenced it, and its repercussions which include polarization, fear, and the storming of the capital on January sixth.
I think it would have been interesting if you went further into why disinformation leads to democratic erosion. This post gives a lot of examples on how disinformation is happening, but it lacks why it is important we are aware of it. Some topics to go further into include the rise of populist leaders, the erosion of accountability and reliability in democratic institutions, and the rise of political demagogues.
In spreading disinformation to voters, Trump exercised many themes of a populist leader. His false narratives appealed to the people and demonized the opposition. He made himself look like a savior to America. His rhetoric leverages polarization to gain support. This is a dangerous strategy for it often undermines political institutions and opponents, creates false promises, and is a gateway to autocratic leadership. Levitsky and Ziblatt list the four signs one might be an autocratic leader. One of them is the use of disinformation by leaders. Trump using populist rhetoric that condones violence and spreads false information exhibits trends of autocratic leadership, and is an important thing to note because it shows the importance of disinformation.
Something else you could have touched on is the support from the republican party. A resistance to democratic backsliding in a liberal democracy should be opposition within the party exercising checks and balances. Once Trump gained power, his autocratic tendencies were often supported within his party. By knowing that his own party is influenced so heavily by his false narratives, US citizens needed to step up as actors in resistance.
I think if you went further into the elements of populist rhetoric being a precursor to an autocratic leadership and the backing of the republican party being evidence of institutional erosion, the readers would be able to see why the spread of disinformation is a large element in the erosion of democratic backsliding.
Caroline Hopkins
Hi Damara!
Your blog post provides an insightful analysis of the damaging impact of disinformation during the 2020 US presidential election, emphasizing its dire consequences for democracy. The widespread dissemination of false narratives and misinformation across social media platforms significantly influenced the electoral process, fostering widespread distrust and hampering voter engagement. Moreover, deliberate polarization fueled by disinformation within online echo chambers exacerbated partisan divides, impeding constructive discourse and amplifying distrust in conventional media sources. Targeting specific demographics with misleading narratives about the voting process intensified confusion and dissuaded certain groups from active participation in the election. Your post adeptly underscores how disinformation, by undermining confidence and discouraging voter involvement, poses a significant threat to democracy. The US 2020 election serves as a poignant example of the dangers posed by unregulated disinformation in a democratic setting. I think it’s interesting to think about how the US will move forward in a society where disinformation runs rampant and threatens to derail our democracy, especially when this disinformation is being perpetuated by some of our elected officials. Great work!
Kennedy Little
Hi Damara! I found your analysis of the different types of disinformation that surrounded the 2020 election to be very important, as there were many domestic and international factors that contributed to the many concerns around this election. I also think that your discussion of the role of social media was very interesting, as we, of course, live in a time in which social media can play a large role in how we conduct our lives. I’m curious as to how we could envision addressing these challenges of disinformation on social media to prevent any significant problems in future elections. As we continue to see how large of an impact social media can have on public opinion, I think it’s crucial to think about effective strategies for promoting accurate information, not only so we can protect democracy, but also so the American people are truly informed about the actions of their representatives. However, I am also concerned that many Americans are already so polarized that any efforts to counter disinformation would not be as effective as we would like.