Election Falsehoods Surged on Podcasts Earlier than Capitol Riots, Researchers Discover

Weeks earlier than the 2020 presidential election, the conservative broadcaster Glenn Beck outlined his prediction for the way Election Day would unfold: President Donald J. Trump could be profitable that night time, however his lead would erode as doubtful mail-in ballots arrived, giving Joseph R. Biden Jr. an unlikely edge.

“Nobody will consider the result as a result of they’ve modified the way in which we’re electing a president this time,” he mentioned.

Not one of the predictions of widespread voter fraud got here true. However podcasters steadily superior the false perception that the election was illegitimate, first as a trickle earlier than the election after which as a tsunami within the weeks main as much as the violent assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in keeping with new analysis.

Researchers on the Brookings Establishment reviewed transcripts of practically 1,500 episodes from 20 of the preferred political podcasts. Amongst episodes launched between the election and the Jan. 6 riot, about half contained election misinformation, in keeping with the analysis.

In some weeks, 60 p.c of episodes talked about the election fraud conspiracy theories tracked by Brookings. These included false claims that software program glitches interfered with the depend, that faux ballots had been used, and that voting machines run by Dominion Voting Methods had been rigged to assist Democrats. These sorts of theories gained forex in Republican circles and would later be leveraged to justify further election audits across the country.

The brand new analysis underscores the extent to which podcasts have unfold misinformation utilizing platforms operated by Apple, Google, Spotify and others, usually with little content material moderation. Whereas social media firms have been widely criticized for his or her position in spreading misinformation in regards to the election and Covid-19 vaccines, they’ve cracked down on each within the final 12 months. Podcasts and the businesses distributing them have been spared comparable scrutiny, researchers say, largely as a result of podcasts are more durable to investigate and evaluation.

“Folks simply haven’t any sense of how dangerous this downside is on podcasts,” mentioned Valerie Wirtschafter, a senior knowledge analyst at Brookings who co-wrote the report with Chris Meserole, a director of analysis at Brookings.

Dr. Wirtschafter downloaded and transcribed greater than 30,000 podcast episodes deemed “speak exhibits,” that means they supplied evaluation and commentary slightly than strictly information updates. Specializing in 1,490 episodes across the election from 20 widespread exhibits, she created a dictionary of phrases about election fraud. After transcribing the podcasts, a crew of researchers looked for the key phrases and manually checked every point out to find out if the speaker was supporting or denouncing the claims.

Within the months main as much as the election, conservative podcasters targeted totally on the concern that mail-in ballots might result in fraud, the evaluation confirmed.

On the time, political analysts had been busy warning of a “red mirage”: an early lead by Mr. Trump that might erode as a result of mail-in ballots, which are likely to get counted later, had been anticipated to come back from Democratic-leaning districts. As ballots had been counted, that’s precisely what happened. However podcasters used the altering fortunes to lift doubts in regards to the election’s integrity.

Election misinformation shot upward, with about 52 p.c of episodes containing misinformation within the weeks after the election, up from about 6 p.c of episodes earlier than the election.

The largest offender in Brookings’s evaluation was Stephen Okay. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s former adviser. His podcast, “Bannon’s Battle Room,” was flagged 115 occasions for episodes utilizing voter fraud phrases included in Brookings’ evaluation between the election and Jan. 6.

“ why they’re going to steal this election?” Mr. Bannon requested on Nov. 3. “As a result of they don’t suppose you’re going to do something about it.”

Because the Jan. 6 protest drew nearer, his podcast pushed more durable on these claims, together with the false belief that poll workers handed out markers that would disqualify ballots.

“Now we’re on, as they are saying, the purpose of assault,” Mr. Bannon mentioned the day earlier than the protest. “The purpose of assault tomorrow. It’s going to kick off. It’s going to be very dramatic.”

Mr. Bannon’s present was removed from Spotify in November 2020 after he mentioned beheading federal officials, however it stays accessible on Apple and Google.

When reached for touch upon Monday, Mr. Bannon mentioned that President Biden was “an illegitimate occupant of the White Home” and referenced investigations into the election that present they “are decertifying his electors.” Many authorized specialists have argued there is no such thing as a method to decertify the election.

Sean Hannity, the Fox Information anchor, additionally ranked extremely within the Brookings knowledge. His podcast and radio program, “The Sean Hannity Present,” is now the preferred radio speak present in America, reaching upward of 15 million radio listeners, in keeping with Speak Media.

“Underage folks voting, those who moved voting, those who by no means re-registered voting, useless folks voting — we have now all of it chronicled,” Mr. Hannity mentioned throughout one episode.

Claims about voter fraud got here not simply from Mr. Hannity but in addition his visitors, together with the pollster John McLaughlin, who shared a personal trade he had with Mr. Trump.

Within the trade, in keeping with Mr. McLaughlin’s on-air account, Mr. Trump mentioned that the election was stolen.

“Yeah,” Mr. McLaughlin mentioned to the president. “I mentioned it yesterday on Hannity radio.”

“Preserve saying it,” Mr. Trump replied.

Mr. McLaughlin went on to say through the podcast: “This election, simply, was stolen and these drop containers and the Dominion Methods — their voting system — are undoubtedly the culprits.”

Claims about Dominion Voting Systems had been debunked and internal Republican memos confirmed officers in Mr. Trump’s re-election marketing campaign knew the claims had been false. Dominion later filed a number of lawsuits in opposition to folks and media firms who pushed the conspiracies.

Representatives for Mr. Hannity, Mr. McLaughlin and Mr. Beck didn’t remark when reached in regards to the findings.

Apple’s podcast guidelines say the corporate doesn’t permit podcasts that “could result in dangerous or harmful outcomes.” Apple declined to remark.

Spotify didn’t instantly touch upon the analysis.

The shortage of moderation on podcast apps is especially sophisticated for Alphabet, the guardian firm of Google and YouTube. The video streaming website cracked down on movies about election fraud, the conspiracy theory QAnon, and vaccine misinformation, prompting some podcast episodes hosted there to be eliminated. However the identical episodes remained accessible on Google’s Podcasts app. Mr. Bannon’s present was faraway from YouTube shortly after Jan. 6, for example, however the podcast stays accessible on Google’s Podcasts app.

Google has argued that its Podcasts app extra carefully resembles a search engine than a publishing service as a result of no audio is hosted by the corporate. A Google spokesman, Farshad Shadloo, mentioned the app merely “crawls and indexes audio content material” hosted elsewhere and that they’ve “insurance policies in opposition to recommending podcasts that comprise dangerous misinformation, together with misinformation in regards to the 2020 U.S. elections.”