Exclusive: Civil society groups push Big Tech to combat disinformation
Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
A group of civil society organizations is calling on tech giants to take specific steps to protect elections against voting disinformation, per a letter shared exclusively with Axios.
Why it matters: U.S. election integrity is under threat as Americans consume online disinformation on voting, candidates and current events.
- Tech companies have their own election year playbooks — forming content moderation teams, offering verified voting information and restricting certain political content — but civil society groups say they're falling short.
Leaders of Google, Instagram, Meta, Reddit, Snap, TikTok, Twitch, YouTube and X all got a letter outlining demands from The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and others.
- Accountable Tech, All Voting is Local and groups focused on Asian, Black and Hispanic people also are among the signatories.
The letter calls on the companies to do the following between July and Inauguration Day 2025:
- Establish and enforce civic and elections policies
- Address AI-generated and manipulated media
- Resource election teams to protect against voting disinformation
- Limit rampant resharing of voting disinformation
- Amplify authoritative and truthful information on voting and elections
What they're saying: "Threats to safe and fair elections undermine democracy and can have a corrosive effect on the safety and voting rights of people of color and other targeted communities," the letter says.
