Meta's Threads is 'overrun' with liberal election fraud conspiracies

Thousands of users have amplified baseless claims of hacked voting machines as Democrats become more comfortable embracing denialism

Widespread denialism doesn't just threaten individual reporters, it primes society for authoritarianism.

Over the past several days, Meta's Threads has become inundated with liberal election fraud conspiracies.

The conspiracies range from skepticism about vote tallies in key swing states, to allegations of a criminal coverup by Biden to force the Democrats to lose in order to (somehow eventually?) take down Trump, to claims of Russian interference with voting technology.

One pervasive conspiracy as of Saturday morning centered around Elon Musk, alleging that the billionaire hacked the election through his Starlink satellite internet company, which conspiracy theorists claim is part of the voting machine supply chain. (This is false, and ironically Musk himself pushed a debunked Dominion voting machine conspiracy theory at a Trump rally last month).

The rampant election fraud conspiracies on Threads show how Meta’s efforts to downrank and minimize journalistic content on the app have helped to create a vacuum in which misinformation thrives unchecked and users are unable to find reliable, accurately reported news. The conspiracies also show how many self-described liberals have grown increasingly conspiratorial and unable to distinguish fact from fiction in a chaotic and broken information ecosystem.

"What is happening with conspiracy theories among liberals is the thing that's always happened with conspiracy theories throughout history,” said Mike Rothschild, author of The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult and Conspiracy Theory of Everything.

“People are looking for explanations for why something happened and they don't want to admit that the thing that happened is a reflection on a candidate that they put all their faith into. So they make up conspiracy theories to explain it instead."

The shift towards a “post-truth” online landscape, where people across the political spectrum wrap themselves in their own conspiratorial bubbles, is not just about ignorance or lack of media literacy. It is, as The Atlantic's Charlie Warzel described it, a new "choose-your-own-adventure reality" and "something darker than a misinformation crisis." 

The fracturing of a shared reality goes beyond politics too. We are seeing it manifested in news and information about pop culture, celebrities, world events, sports, and myriad other topics. 

Rather than engage in the stark realities of things like natural disasters, political upheaval, a global pandemic, or societal challenges, people are retreating into their own alternative realities. At its core, it's denialism. It’s a deliberate rejection of the truth and anyone who challenges this denialism will be met with hate, hostility, and abuse.

Posts pushing false claims about the 2024 election on Threads have collectively reached thousands of people.

In May, Meta rolled out the ability for our third-party fact-checking partners to review and rate false content on Threads. Previously, the company matched similarly false content on Threads based on what was fact-checked on Facebook and Instagram.

Threads users said that the app began recommending election denial content and suggesting that users search the name Stephen Spoonamore on Friday. Spoonamore is a technologist who has claimed that previous elections were hacked and been referred to as the "liberal Q."

"This is a must-read from Stephen Spoonamore, an expert on identifying election hacking. And we were hacked," one user posted. 

Under the handle billt801, a Threads user whose bio reads "Riding with Harris-Walz 🌊🌊🌊 2024" reposted a long diatribe that Stephen Spoonamore allegedly posted to another text-based social media app called Spoutable. The thread makes false statements about voting machines being hacked and claims that "a full blown #fascist takeover is underway and they did it by hacking the tabulation machines."

The thread also claims that those who speak out on this issue are in danger: "Be aware these people are sociopaths who will kill you, they have done so to others, so act accordingly." Spoonamore did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Under the handle debvoteblue, a liberal Harris supporter responded, "Bill bless you for this info… Just tell us how we can help you? Do I need to share this with our DAHere in Mich she’s amazing @dananessel AG Nessel I’m Michigan here member of tribe need your help."

Other posts bemoan the media's refusal to cover the alleged stolen election. "I like how no one from the press is talking about how Elon Musk just rigged the election,” a user under the handle alex.nick.jungle posted. Many posts urge others to contact lawmakers and push for recounts.

Jason Velazquez, a freelance technologist outside Orlando, FL, said that despite having the political content recommendation option turned off, when he logged into Threads on Thursday night he was barraged by conspiracy theories.

"He didn't win. The voting machines were hacked. Remember when he said at his rally that he didn't need votes? That he already had em??? Wake up!!" one Threads user posted under the handle seraphina_spang.

Velazquez said he tried to search out reliable info, but was met with more voting fraud conspiracies. He refreshed his feed throughout the next couple days, hoping to see content from journalists fact checking the misinformation, but only received more false claims

"There is no news on Threads to counteract what people are saying," he said. "I don't see news articles from reputable sources. There are no journalists in my feed to counteract the claims."

Velazquez said that the only journalist Threads has ever organically pushed in his feed was Business Insider's Katie Notopolous, but he hasn’t even seen anything from her. (Notopolous's last post was about a Skibidi toilet toy and as of Saturday she hadn't debunked any of the election claims.)

Unlike the right’s Stop the Steal movement in 2020, so far no Democratic officials or candidates have promoted the voter fraud or hacking conspiracies.

Though Meta is undeniably contributing to our broken information ecosystem by restricting the reach of reputable journalists on its platforms in an effort to limit the spread of “political” content, there is no amount of content moderation that would solve this broader crisis of trust. Meta already institutes draconian content moderation policies. The problem here is a societal one and, while it is manifesting on Threads, it’s bigger than any one platform.

As trust in mainstream media declines, partisan narratives on both sides are gaining traction, leading many liberals to adopt conspiratorial thinking similar to their conservative counterparts and giving rise to a phenomenon known online as BluAnon, a play on the right-wing conspiracy theory QAnon.

In July, well known pro-Biden users on Threads pushed conspiracy theories about the assassination attempt on Trump, claiming that the shooting was a false flag and an inside job orchestrated by the Secret Service. These claims reached millions. Some of the same users had previous claimed, without evidence, that the media was working directly with a small group of illuminati-type "elites" to "take out" Biden and force him out of the race. 

"Conspiracy theories provide a convenient excuse for the dissonance that people feel between the hopes and reality," Imran Ahmed, founder and chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, told me in July. "What you’re seeing now is both political parties in the U.S. showing signs of heightened conspiracism. Conspiracy theories provide an easy story people can tell themselves that gives them a reason not to engage with reality as it is.”

As conspiracism rises, journalists reporting on critical issues like climate change, election integrity, and public health will face even more harassment and threats as conspiracy theorists dismantle public trust and incite increasingly violent opposition to factual information.

Widespread denialism doesn't just threaten individual reporters, it primes society for authoritarianism. We are already seeing how figures like Musk and Trump are working to exploit our broken information ecosystem to dismantle public accountability and erode journalism's already precariously fragile role in our democracy. 

As trust in factual reporting collapses, people will deny even the most rigorously verified truths. This widespread denialism sets the stage for unchecked power, where propaganda thrives, dissent is stifled, and democracy itself is at risk.

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