Photo by Vinit Vispute on Unsplash [Download]

Democracy Will Only Work If the Social Media Giants Grow Up

This brazenand illegalsuggestion spread quickly across social media and once again underscored the unprecedented risks of this election season: the Covid-19 pandemic, an onslaught of disinformation, and online echo chambers stoking vitriol that could turn to violence.

With more Americans than ever working, going to school, and gathering online, social media platforms have an urgent responsibility to step up in order to ensure the integrity of this election.

Quorum or no quorum, the FEC has been discussing online advertising for five years and failed to regulate the industry in any way.

Ann Ravel is the former chair of the Federal Election Commission and the Digital Deception project director at MapLight.

Facebooks Voting Information Center, Twitters expansion of its civic integrity policy, and YouTubes crackdown on videos using hacked materials are a strong start. Unless platforms take additional, proactive steps soon, the United States will be caught flat-footed against disinformation and distrustwhether those seeds are planted by online trolls or the sitting president.

A new Election Integrity Roadmap released by the nonprofit group Accountable Tech shows that a different path is possible.

Created in conjunction with leading technologists, civil rights leaders, and disinformation experts, the Roadmap outlines tangible steps that platforms can take to defend the integrity of the November elections.Because the recommendations are grounded in platforms existing policies and technologies, they can immediately be implemented at scale to help social media companies responsibly navigate everything from early voting through the official certification of results.

The WIRED conversation illuminates how technology is changing every aspect of our livesfrom culture to business, science to design.

Original article