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 began supported use of new AI tools to complete the first systematic analysis of harassment and disruption across local US elections on one the world's leading social media platforms.
Our findings were bracing: hundreds of cases - with collective reach in the tens of millions - that proliferate, glorify, and monetize the harassment, denigration, and doxxing 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 monetized ongoing 'engine of harm' - through both real world disruption and disinformation - elevates the threat of subversion, disruption to safe and secure elections in November 2024.
In 2024, armed with newfound data and insight into this trend, Pluro Labs has partnered with leaders in democracy, law, and journalism to counter this threat and deepen resilience ahead of the November 2024 elections.
We plan to:
"After Nightmare Year, Election Officials are Quitting"
New York Times, 2021
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