Fighting back against the disinformation
by the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortéz for US Representative campaign
New accounts of people spreading lies pop up almost weekly – from claims that polling sites are closed, to town hall disruptors who claim (still!) that the 2020 election was stolen or that vaccines don’t work. Far-right disinformation campaigns have become so common, and so multi-layered, that they rarely make headlines.
What’s particularly insidious is that many of these campaigns specifically target voters of color, or voters whose first language is not English – preying on communities who are leery of our government or get their news from close friends or family who may mistakenly pass on false information. Disinformation can spread quickly, unchecked.
For example:
• On WhatsApp, users around the country received messages (in various languages) that claimed polls would not open for the upcoming midterm elections because of an “unsettled” dispute over the previous presidential election.
• In the Latinx community, disinformation about abortion access has been so prevalent that recently, in a study conducted by the NALEO National Latino Voter Tracking Poll, more than half of Latinx registered voters believe abortion to be currently illegal.
• And in Pennsylvania, the GOP candidate challenging Democrat Summer Lee in PA-12 is taking advantage of his shared name with a former Democratic Congressman to sow confusion.
• We know that these disinformation tactics make an impact on voter turnout and overall trust in the electoral system. That’s why we must do everything we can in these last few days before the midterm elections to reach every voter and make sure they’re properly informed on how to make their voices heard at the ballot.
Disinformation about Alexandria specifically happens enough that we’ve even built a section on our website to help counter fake narratives – OcasioCortez.com/Fact-Checks. Here are some recent fact checks:
These are just some of the lies the right have attempted to spread about Alexandria in order to undermine our movement, downplay our progressive wins, and remove Alexandria from Congress.
And many progressive candidates across the country face similar disinformation attempts to undermine their campaigns. We cannot and will not let these attempts at discrediting our movement go unanswered.
[For various ways to lend a hand to Representative Ocasio, go to her website. To help turn out the Democratic vote from wherever you are in the world, go to the Democrats Abroad phone banking to Get Out The Vote page.]
Contact us by email at fund4thepanamanews@gmail.com
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