Jan. 6, 2021, was a day almost all Americans remember. It was a day of insurgency as President-Elect Donald Trump’s supporters marched through the United States Capitol Building; five people died and 174 were injured. These rioters were told the election had been stolen; this was clear misinformation. This statement of lies caused what would be a deadly protest with many unnecessary casualties. When citizens are fed lies that they believe, it could be detrimental to a democracy. Democracies are built on peaceful elections and inaugurations, giving everyone a voice. When people’s voices get threatened with violence, it does not end well.
Although election interference is not as common, it still does exist, with the most common form being fraud. Many voters submit ballots for dead people, and vote more than once, alongside other ways to steal an election. Candidates often accuse an opposing candidate of election interference without any evidence. In this past election, Trump claimed that Democrats in Pennsylvania were cheating – before he started winning in that state. When civilians believe these baseless claims, chaos will almost always ensue and destabilize a nation’s political state. Russia has interfered in American elections countless times, with a popular example being the 2024 presidential election, where fabricated videos were mass spread throughout popular social media websites to sway voter’s opinions.
Another example of election interference would be in recent times, when social media users had accused Elon Musk, owner of SpaceX (Starlink), of getting fake votes for Trump, via exploiting ballot tabulators. This baseless claim was denied by the Associated Press, stating that too many safety counters existed for such a security failure to be possible.
Misinformation has a major strength by the name of fear-mongering. When a nation’s people can not trust those with authority, who is to say those with authority will keep the people? Like accusations of electoral interference, misinformation often has no support or evidence to back it up and is simply a statement. Russian trolls spread mass misinformation during the European Union election in 2022. Using deepfakes and artificial intelligence, many European voters have had their vote influenced by facts that are simply false. Russian trolls also put out several clones of important websites. For example, a clone website of the major German publication “Bild,” was used to push the agenda that Germany needed to continue trading with Russia to stay functional following an energy embargo placed on Russia by Germany.
Electional interference and misinformation may always have major power over democracy, but without trust and truth, a democracy can not be true and will always be a lie. Democracy itself is flawed and will never be perfect. This is clear with countries such as Russia and Pakistan. To prevent democracy from being exploited, it is crucial to double-check every bit of political information and never make or spread claims without evidence. The foundation of the U.S. is a true and protected democracy; without it, America can not be the country for the free, and the symbol of freedom on the global scale.
