In the 2020 US elections, Joe Biden’s win against Donald Trump prompted the Trump campaign to file more than 60 lawsuits challenging the result, mostly focusing on swing states.
Trump falsely claimed widespread voter fraud, although none of the proceedings found any evidence of this. Yet he continued to use these baseless claims as a key part of his 2024 campaign.
Such rhetoric undermines trust in the electoral process – and it’s in this context that we must assess the conspiracies and reactions to the fake bomb threats that have emerged since polling began today.
As misinformation researchers, we spent election day monitoring a wide range of hashtags and keywords on X and Reddit to identify political misinformation. Our goal was to collect data that will help determine where, how and through whom misinformation and conspiracy theories spread in the wake of breaking news.
Regarding the fake bomb threats, we observed an online reaction that demonstrates a clear erosion of citizens’ trust in the election process.
Fake threats hit polling stations nationwide
Around midday in Georgia, local time, non-credible bomb threats were called in to polling stations across the country, with a particular focus on the battleground state of Georgia.
Georgia police said 32 fake threats had been called in to Fulton County. Fulton is the state’s most populous county – and one where the 2020 election result came down to less than 12,000 votes. Further threats were made in Georgia’s DeKalb and Gwinnett counties.
The FBI released an official statement saying they were “[…] aware of bomb threats to polling locations in several states, many of which appear to originate from Russian email domains”. The Georgia secretary of state also said the threats were from Russia – this video announcement receiving significant attention online. That said, United States intelligence agencies will need to conduct further investigation before the source can be confirmed.
One thing is for sure: the threats added further confusion and fear to an already contentious election. In some locations, voting was paused as emergency services swept polling stations to ensure voters were safe. Judges also had to make emergency interventions to allow polling to remain open late, to account for the temporary closures.
On X and Reddit, we observed discussions that the threats may have intentionally targeted predominantly Black counties to discourage voting. In response, some users with large followings started calling on potentially hesitant voters to return to the line and vote.
Rejecting official reports
As for who is behind the threats, not everyone is buying the narrative that Russia is likely responsible.
We’ve seen fingers pointed at the Democrats, Republicans, members of the “deep state” (a group of people who are allegedly secretly controlling the government) and even Elon Musk. It’s too early to say which will emerge as the most popular conspiracy.
On both social media and in the traditional media, the far-right seem to have grown increasingly cynical about claims of Russian involvement in US politics. This is due to a distrust in the Democratic government and various investigations, largely organised by the Democrats, such as the Mueller report and the first impeachment of Donald Trump.
In the far-right’s view, Russia is used as a scapegoat by the Democrats to attack Trump and/or to disguise their own misdeeds. This form of conspiratorial thinking goes back to their scepticism of Russia’s “sweeping and systematic” interference in the 2016 election.
While the Mueller report detailed Russia’s involvement extensively, it has never been accepted by US right-wing media and has been discredited as the “Russia hoax”.
In the years since – and based on our observations on X today – Trump’s supporters have easily dismissed every new scandal involving Russia as another Russia hoax.
The Democrats, meanwhile, are so far largely accepting the official narrative that Russia is responsible for the hoax bomb threats. They did, however, criticise Republicans who were seemingly celebrating the poll closures.
Misinformation in a post-truth environment
Elections, particularly those involving Donald Trump, are renowned for elements of post-truth politics. This is the idea that what someone believes to be true can hold greater weight than objective facts.
One significant aspect of the post-truth era is the erosion of social trust. We can see, in the examples below, various perspectives on the Russian bomb threats:
These examples from indicate there is no widespread acceptance of US authorities’ official explanation. As such, it seems likely that regardless of the outcome of the FBI’s investigation into the source/sources, citizens will continue to be divided.
Our findings point to a clear distrust in authority and official narratives – something which is characteristic of post-truth politics.
How many people will question this year’s electoral proceedings, assuming the role of foreign interference? And if societies can’t agree on matters which should be easily settled, where does that leave them on the issues that aren’t so black and white?
Katherine M. FitzGerald receives funding from the Australian Research Council for a PhD scholarship.
Klaus Groebner receives funding from the Australian Research Council for a PhD scholarship.
