Two organizations have launched an aggressive to ad campaign to combat voter suppression.
The News Literacy Project and The Open Mind Legacy Project, will air public service announcements on radio and television to combat malicious fabrication, bots and online trolls that seek to mislead voters.
“Our mission is to help people learn to sort fact from fiction so that they can be engaged and informed participants in our democracy,” said NLP founder and CEO Alan C. Miller. “This nonpartisan campaign is intended to inoculate Americans against misinformation about voting and build critical thinking skills that they will use to make informed decisions throughout their lives.”
The organizations cite the 2016 election as a prime example in which foreign and domestic information overwhelmed social media platforms with memes containing false information.
”Foreign and domestic disinformation campaigns on U.S. social platforms tripped folks up at the polls and depressed turnout in 2016, especially among historically marginalized young and Black voters,” said Alexander Heffner, Open Mind Legacy Project president and host of The Open Mind. “Our efforts are to counter forcefully and help minimize the damage of fabrication online.”
Public service announcements will air in Spanish and English. The campaign will aim to debunk myths and encourage consumers to verify facts with multiple sources before sharing social media posts.
Earlier this year, during the initial stage of the coronavirus, Americans were voting in primaries and caucuses around the nation with little guidance on how to safely and reliably participate in our elections during a pandemic. Now, in addition to the continued public health advisories about mask wearing and social distancing, we need to increase public awareness to safeguard the country’s public life as well as our public health.
