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FBI says misinformation is a top 2020 election issue

Posted at 7:50 PM, Jan 09, 2020
and last updated 2020-01-09 19:50:34-05

INDIANAPOLIS — With less than a year before the 2020 election, the FBI is working to make sure people's votes are protected.

The FBI hosted a meeting Thursday morning on election security, detailing what they're looking for this year with the upcoming election. The two main areas discussed were manipulation and misinformation.

Manipulation could be someone adding people to the voter registration list just to show they can break into the system and mess with your information to scare you, while misinformation could be something you see on social media that isn't true and is meant to make you think something is different than what's really happening.

"It can be anything from actually going and manipulating the votes to voter registration databases to just undermining voter confidence," Michael Alford with the FBI said. "Everything across the board from everything we've seen in 2016 and 2018, as well as misinformation that's produced through social media."

Alford said the FBI doesn't ask social media companies to take down posts of misinformation, but it alerts those companies that the post may violate its terms of service.