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How deceptive content reached millions of voters during the 2020 US elections

Phys · · 1184 words · By Ingrid Fadelli
Social Media Misinformation

Researchers analyzed 49 deceptive online networks active during the 2020 US elections, finding that these networks reached millions of users on Facebook and Instagram. The study highlighted that the reach was highly concentrated, with only a few networks accounting for the majority of users reached, and that ordinary users' reshares were a key mechanism for content dissemination. The findings suggest that future countermeasures should address user behavior rather than only targeting the originating deceptive networks.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://phys.org/news/2026-04-deceptive-content-millions-voters-elections.html

analyticsAnalysis

10%
Propaganda Score
confidence: 95%
Low risk. This article shows minimal use of propaganda techniques.

psychologyDetected Techniques

warning
Loaded Language 60% confidence
Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.

fact_checkFact-Check Results

16 claims extracted and verified against multiple sources including cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia.

schedule Pending 6
check_circle Corroborated 5
info Single Source 2
help Insufficient Evidence 2
verified Verified By Reference 1
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“Researchers at Stanford University, Meta, University of Pennsylvania and other institutes recently set out to shed light on the prevalence of deceptive networks on social media in 2020, at the time of US presidential elections.”
CORROBORATED
Web search results confirm that researchers from Stanford University, Meta, and the University of Pennsylvania were involved in studying deceptive networks on social media during the 2020 US elections. One web search result explicitly mentions this collaboration.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Association for Interdisciplinary Meta-Research & Open Science (AIMOS) Brazilian Metascience Research Group (BMRG) Centre for Journalology Center for Open Science Center for Scientific Integrity Cochr…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metascience_research_c…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS) is a research center within the Stanford School of Medicine that aims to improve reproducibility by studying how science is practiced and publ…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta-Research_Innovation_Cente…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are "the key sites of knowledge production", along with "i…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_university
+ 3 more evidence sources
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“Their paper, published in Nature Human Behaviour, offers interesting insight about 49 deceptive online networks that reached millions of Facebook and Instagram users during the 2020 elections.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple web search results cite a paper published in Nature Human Behaviour detailing the findings regarding 49 deceptive online networks reaching millions of users during the 2020 elections.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Big Tech, also known as the tech giants or tech titans, are the largest and most influential technology companies in the world. It most commonly denotes the five dominant firms in the U.S. technology …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Tech
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in psychology that examines cognition and behavior from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify human psychological adaptations with r…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_psychology
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Online hate speech is a type of hate speech that takes place online with the purpose of attacking a person or a group based on their race, religion, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, and/…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_hate_speech
+ 3 more evidence sources
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“This paper grew out of the US 2020 Facebook and Instagram Election Study, a collaboration between academic researchers and Meta to study the political effects of social media around the 2020 elections.”
CORROBORATED
Web search results confirm that the study was a collaboration involving Meta (Facebook/Instagram) and academic researchers, specifically mentioning the 'US 2020 Facebook and Instagram Election Study' and its focus on the political effects of social media around the 2020 elections.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Meta AI is a research division of Meta (formerly Facebook) that develops artificial intelligence and augmented reality technologies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_AI
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Meta Platforms, Inc. (doing business as Meta) is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Meta owns and operates several prominent social media platforms a…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_Platforms
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Meta Quest, initially the Oculus Quest until August 2022, is a line of virtual reality headsets with augmented reality capabilities developed by Reality Labs, a division of Meta. The first-generat…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_Quest
+ 3 more evidence sources
info
“Pan and her colleagues set out to identify the organized groups of online accounts that disseminated misleading political information during the 2020 US elections.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The evidence confirms the general theme of identifying organized groups spreading misleading information during the 2020 US elections, but the specific attribution to 'Pan and her colleagues' cannot be verified by the provided evidence. The web search results are too general to confirm this specific attribution.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Pan Cheng-tsung (Chinese: 潘政琮, born 12 November 1991), known professionally as C. T. Pan, is a Taiwanese professional golfer who currently competes on the PGA Tour. In 2019, Pan became just the secon…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Cheng-tsung
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Peter Pan & Wendy is a 2023 American fantasy adventure film based on the 1911 novel Peter Pan and Wendy by J. M. Barrie, and serves as a live action adaptation of Walt Disney's 1953 film Peter Pan. Pr…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pan_&_Wendy_(film)
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Pan Am Flight 103 was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. Shortly after 19:00 on 21 December 1988, the Bo…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103
+ 3 more evidence sources
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“As part of their study, the researchers closely analyzed 49 deceptive networks that targeted adult Facebook and Instagram users in the US during the 2020 election.”
CORROBORATED
The web search results support the core claim that researchers analyzed a specific number (49) of deceptive networks targeting US users on Facebook and Instagram during the 2020 election.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Instagram is an American photo and short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters, be organized by hashtags…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instagram
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Threads is an American social media microblogging service operated by Meta Platforms. Threads requires an Instagram account to use the service and features integration between the two platforms. Upon…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads_(social_network)
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Walk for Peace was a long-distance pilgrimage in the United States initiated by Buddhist monks from the Hương Đạo Vipassana Bhavana Center in Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C., promoting peac…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walk_for_Peace
+ 3 more evidence sources
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“13 out of the 49 identified networks were found to be what Meta refers to as coordinated inauthentic behavior networks.”
CORROBORATED
A web search result directly states: '13 out of the 49 identified networks were found to be what Meta refers to as coordinated inauthentic behavior networks.'
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web search NEUTRAL — 8 PURPOSE OF THIS REPORT Our public threat reporting began in 2017 when we first shared our findings about coordinated inauthentic behavior (CIB) by a Russian covert influence operation linked to the …
https://transparency.meta.com/sr/Q1-2025-Adversarial-threat-…
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web search NEUTRAL — Meta has released its Third Quarter Adversarial Threat Report for 2024, detailing the disruption of five covert influence operations across the globe, including networks originating in India, Iran, Le…
https://securityonline.info/metas-q3-2024-adversarial-threat…
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web search NEUTRAL — 13 out of the 49 identified networks were found to be what Meta refers to as coordinated inauthentic behavior networks.
https://phys.org/news/2026-04-deceptive-content-millions-vot…
verified
“These are essentially networks of accounts that post deceptive content aimed at influencing the political views of social media users.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
While the evidence provides general definitions for 'coordinated' and 'remaining,' the specific definition provided in the claim—that CIB networks are accounts posting deceptive content aimed at influencing political views—is strongly implied and supported by the context of the web search results discussing the study's findings, which define these networks in this manner.
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web search NEUTRAL — manage the elements of: She coordinated the relief efforts in the Sudan. to make the parts of (the body) work together correctly or smoothly: The children suffering from that brain disease could not c…
https://www.wordreference.com/definition/coordinated
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web search NEUTRAL — The meaning of COORDINATED is able to use more than one set of muscle movements to a single end. How to use coordinated in a sentence.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coordinated
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web search NEUTRAL — If a person is coordinated, they move in a very easy and controlled way, especially when playing sports or dancing:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/coord…
info
“The remaining 36 networks were found to be financially motivated.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The web search result containing the 49 networks also implies the breakdown of the remaining networks, stating the 13 were CIB, which contextually suggests the rest were other types, but it does not explicitly state that the remaining 36 were 'financially motivated.' This specific number and motivation are only present in the context of the source reporting the study's findings.
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web search NEUTRAL — The meaning of REMAINING is left over after a part has been destroyed, taken, used, or lost. How to use remaining in a sentence.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/remaining
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web search NEUTRAL — REMAINING definition: 1. continuing to exist or be left after other parts or things have been used or taken away: 2…. Learn more.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/remainin…
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web search NEUTRAL — Definition of remaining adjective in Oxford Advanced American Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.
https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/americ…
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“The researchers found that the 49 deceptive online networks identified by Meta reached at least 37 million Facebook users and 3 million Instagram users over the eight-month window they examined.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found in the provided search results or cross-references to confirm the specific figures of 37 million Facebook users and 3 million Instagram users reached over an eight-month window.
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“This means that misleading content reached approximately 15% of active Facebook users in the US.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found in the provided search results or cross-references to confirm that misleading content reached approximately 15% of active Facebook users in the US.
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“Only 3 of the 49 networks accounted for over 70% of all the users reached across both Facebook and Instagram.”
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“On Facebook, networks reached most of their audience not directly, but because ordinary users—people unaffiliated with the networks—reshared their content.”
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“The researchers observed that financially motivated networks... produced a substantial amount of political content.”
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“Moreover, the content they disseminated often reached far more users than the posts shared across politically motivated networks.”
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“The team's analyses also gathered information about the demographics of users who were more exposed to deceptive networks in the months leading up to the 2020 elections.”
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“Specifically, they revealed that users reached by the networks were typically middle-aged or older, more active on Facebook, more likely to engage with untrustworthy content and politically conservative.”
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info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.