How to Respond to Disinformation and Digital Voter Suppression: Training with Shireen Mitchell

What should we do when we see disinformation? How to combat digital voter suppression techniques like false voting information or propaganda discouraging people from voting?

Thanks to Shireen Mitchell of Stop Online Violence Against Women for the fast-paced training session on responding to disinfo and digital voter suppression. Here’s the video.

The slides are available at https://digitalsista-disinfo-slides. And the video’s also available on Facebook.

Here’s some of the highlights.

Reporting disinformation and digital voter suppression

You should report voter suppression to your Secretary of State and county election officials.

In addition, there are several options for reporting disinformation and digital voter suppression.

• Common Cause’s Disinformation Tip Line
• Stop Digital Voter Suppression
• The Biden campaign: http://joe.link/reportdisinfo
• The DNC: disinfo@dnc.org
• When digital voter suppression on a social network, report it to the platform. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram all make it easy to report posts. Even if they don’t respond to your report, it’s still useful to track.

Resources

Here’s some additional resources on disinformation and digital voter suppression.

• Greatest Hits Guide: Voting Disinfo Messaging, Leadership Conference and Spitfire Strategies in partnership with Common Cause and Lawyer’s Committee
• How to Talk to Friends and Family Who Share Misinformation, PEN America
• Digital Defense Toolkit, ReFrame/PEN America
• Que no te cuenten / Protection from Deception texting-based course from Common Cause and First Draft
• Amplifying the Right Stuff — bilingual slides, DisarmDisinfo/Indi New Rochelle
• Background on Disinformation and Digital Voter Suppression, including several of Shireen’s earlier presentations
• Combatting digital disinformation, a discussion between Shireen and Stephan Cox on the Washington State Indivisible Podcast

About Shireen Mitchell

Shireen Mitchell, aka digitalsista, is the founder of Stop Online Violence Against Women Inc., a member of the Real Facebook Oversight Board, and has been fighting disinformation for over a decade.

Her groundbreaking 2018 work analyzing Facebook ads highlighted the racially-targeted aspects of digital voter suppression in the 2016 campaign; her January 2020 Report On Ongoing Threat To 2020 Election: Digital Voter Suppression identifies threats and responses for this year’s election. Shireen has discussed disinformation and digital voter suppression in a wide variety of venues including MSNBC, The Root, Netroots Nation, Columbia Journalism Review, Vox, NowThis News, MIT Technology Review, and the Washington Post. She is also the founder of Digital Sisters/Sistas, the first organization dedicated to bringing women and girls of color online.

Image credits:

• Headlines and digital voter suppression definition from Stop Digital Voter Suppression™ Toolkit, Stop Online Violence Against Women Inc, 2013–2020
• “Make a plan to vote” infographic: Seattle Indivisible
• “Vote your full ballot” graphic: Indivisible Whidbey
• Indivisible Truth Brigade summary: Indivisible WA-9

Thanks to Indivisible Whidbey, Washington Indivisible Network, and Indivisble’s Training team for their support!