RamsayBolton
Superstar
Murphy Bannerman first noticed the posts this summer in a Facebook group called Being Black in Arizona.
Someone started posting memes full of false claims that seemed designed to discourage people from voting.
The memes were "trying to push this narrative of, 'The system is a mess and there's no point in you participating,' " Bannerman said. She recalled statements such as, " 'Democrats and Republicans are the same. There's no point in voting.' 'Obama didn't do anything for you during his term, why should you vote for a Democrat this time around?' "
Black and Latino voters are being flooded with similar messages in the final days of the election, according to voting rights activists and experts who track disinformation.
These tactics echo Russian election interference on social media four years ago when operatives working for the Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency focused heavily on America's racial divisions, according to a Senate Intelligence Committee report on Russian interference.
This year, these campaigns are even more widespread, voting rights activists say. And while in most cases, it's not clear who is behind the disinformation, the intent is unmistakable: to depress turnout among people of color by fueling cynicism and distrust in the political process.
"We are now talking about this misinformation as a part of the same trajectory as a poll tax, as a literacy test," he said. "A sustained campaign targeted at Black Americans — and often brown Americans as well — to limit our political power, to limit our ability to shape the decisions that are made in this country."