With the election just weeks away, misinformation and deceptive content about voting, candidates, and efforts at voter suppression are continuing to spread online. This week, we launched powerful new tools to fight the spread of false information and now we need your help.

Our new Election Deception Tracker allows users to capture content from their Facebook feeds that contains false or misleading information about the election and send it to a team of election protection advocates who will analyze the information and push for its removal. Simply install the Election Deception Tracker on your Chrome or Firefox web browser for free from the Chrome or Firefox app store. Once installed, right click on a post title on Facebook, scroll down to "send to Election Deception Tracker," and follow the prompts. The information will be sent to a MapLight database, where our team of researchers and election protection advocates will analyze the content, publicize the existence of problematic information, and push for removal of organized efforts to spread false or misleading information by contacting executives at Facebook.

By joining a collective effort to track and report the spread of deceptive election content on Facebook, you can take a powerful stand to protect the election while pushing Facebook to be more transparent and accountable.

Click here to get the tracker for Chrome.

Click here to get the tracker for Firefox.

In addition to the Election Deception Tracker, MapLight’s Text-to-Report service allows users to counter the spread of misinformation by sending text or picture messages of misleading or deceptive election-related information seen in-person, or anywhere online, via text message. Users simply text a picture or description of false or misleading information, such as from flyers, mailers, or online content, to (662) 667-1234. Information submitted via Text-to-Report will be flagged for MapLight’s research team and election protection allies to stop deceptive information from spreading further.

The rampant spread of false and misleading information online presents one of the greatest threats to our democracy today. You can help us both by installing and using the tool and by spreading the word on social media with posts from our digital toolkit.  

Thank you for your support and your work helping to protect the 2020 election.

Best,
Dan

Daniel G. Newman
MapLight President & Co-Founder