Good evening! Tonight, my colleague Tiffany Xu, who covers misinformation and disinformation, explains why false claims about Haitians in Ohio spread so far even after they were debunked. We also cover Democratic groups warning against a key voting bloc and the way Republicans have talked about abortion recently. — Jess Bidgood
A false rumor that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were killing and eating their pets was swiftly and decisively denied this month, but that didn’t stop the rumor from spreading across the country for weeks.
In early September, a Springfield woman published a Facebook post full of errors that she later called a “game of telephone.” She later deleted and disavowed the post, but on September 5, a conservative user repeated the same post to X.
On September 9, Springfield authorities denied the allegations, but by that point it was too late: The claims had already traveled through an online ecosystem ripe for the amplification of misinformation.
Donald Trump promoted the story widely when he mentioned it during a presidential debate on September 10. Despite a quick fact-check by one of the debate’s moderators, the false story exploded online and in the real world, fueled by conservative media outlets, political leaders, and social media heavyweights.
This is why disinformation – usually defined as false information that those spreading it know to be deceptive – has been so difficult to suppress, especially during a tumultuous election period.
Live the Meme
While the misinformation about animal cruelty led to concrete harassment and threats in Springfield, it was circulated online as a source of laughs. Trump and a group of supporters, including X owner Elon Musk, circulated synthetic images of pets in fictional situations. Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, encouraged supporters to “keep the cat memes flowing” on X. TikTok videos showed families jokingly rubbing seasoning on their pets. A South African musician created a TikTok remix of Trump’s debate remarks, performed it live in Munich, and posted it on X with a laughing emoji.
A tongue-in-cheek tone can make misinformation seem more acceptable and less dangerous, but in the case of fake stories about pets, it has also seeped into the real world: The Arizona Republican Party installed 12 billboards mimicking a Chick-fil-A ad with the message, “Stop Eating Kittens. Vote Republican!”
Fake it till you make it
Elected officials like Vance spread the story while acknowledging that it may not be true. In this case, even before the debate, Vance acknowledged that “of course, it’s possible that all of these rumors will turn out to be false.” A few days later, he said he was willing to “craft a narrative so that the American media will actually pay attention to the suffering of the American people.” The success of this tactic hinges on several cognitive biases, including stories that we hear often, that are easy to remember, and that we already expect to be true.
“‘I haven’t believed it until I saw it’ is a phrase we used to use,” said Michael Mosser, former director of the Global Disinformation Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. “Now it’s ‘I haven’t believed it until I saw it.'”
Disinformation can be profitable
Virality online can make disinformation distributors real money. Within 72 hours of Trump spreading his pet lie at the debate, several YouTube videos repeating his claims were accompanied by ads from Mazda, Adobe and a dozen other major brands, likely raking in thousands of dollars for their creators, according to ECO, a group focused on corporate responsibility. A significant chunk of the ad revenue likely went to YouTube, too.
With more than a quarter of Americans now believing Haitians kidnap and eat dogs and cats (along with 52% of likely Trump voters), according to a poll by market research firm YouGov, influencers and the platforms they work for are incentivized to continue peddling false information in order to gain attention.
A fragile news ecosystem
The bleak outlook for the news industry and growing distrust of professional media have led many to seek information and local news on social media, where poor content moderation and engagement-heavy algorithms help reports of animal cruelty gain traction.
According to NewsGuard, a group that tracks misinformation, the number of websites posing as independent news organizations but secretly funded by partisan groups — also known as “pink slime” websites — now outnumbers daily newspapers in the United States.
Northwestern University found last year that 204 counties in the country are “news deserts” — those lacking newspapers, local digital sites, public radio newsrooms or ethnic publications — and that an additional 228 counties are at risk of suffering the same fate. A third of U.S. adults told Pew Research this summer that they regularly get their news from Facebook or YouTube.
Cross-border disinformation
The false claims about pets exploded in the U.S. right-wing media ecosystem but spread worldwide through the borderless internet. Spanish-language and Latino-focused accounts, including in Spain and Colombia, amplified the claims, according to the Inter-American Institute for Digital Democracy, a think tank. Musk, who has about 200 million followers on X, shared a video of a Springfield City Commission meeting that he claims justifies the pet-eating accounts.
These false claims have real consequences for Haitian Americans in Springfield and across the country, but less so for Trump, Vance and the influencers who spread them. Trump continues to stoke unfounded narratives. On Monday night, he targeted another Haitian community, stoking fears about immigrants in Charleroi, Pennsylvania.
A warning to the Democrats…
A new memo released by two major Democratic groups working in battleground states suggests signs of concern about Vice President Kamala Harris among younger voters and voters of color, reports Maya King.
The groups say Harris has struggled to gain traction with Black, Latino and young voters in key battleground states in the 2020 presidential election, and they urgently need more funding to better communicate with them.
…And a Warning to Republicans
Democrats have tried hard this year to portray Republicans as the party of misogyny and restricting women’s rights, and polls showing large gender gaps in presidential and lower-level races suggest their message is working.
But if the Republican Party needs to do better in how it appeals to women, not everyone seems to understand that.
On Friday, former President Donald Trump told women on his social media platform, Truth Social, that if he were president, “you wouldn’t think about abortion anymore.” The same day, Bernie Moreno, a Republican businessman seeking to unseat Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, said at a town hall that he doesn’t understand why women of a certain age are concerned about the issue.
“And by the way, this is kind of weird, but I think to myself, I don’t think it’s an issue, especially for women over 50,” Moreno said, according to video obtained by a local NBC affiliate.
Polls suggest that many voters are indeed thinking about abortion: In a New York Times/Siena College poll conducted this month, 15% of voters cited abortion as the most important issue on their ballot, a group that includes 22% of women and 13% of voters over 65.
Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and Republican who votes for Trump, warned on X on Tuesday that comments like Moreno’s could negatively impact her party’s polling performance.
“Do you want to lose the election?” she wrote. “I’m asking my friends.”
Jess Bidgood
