Voter Fraud Claims and Bomb Threats Mar Election Day

In the final hours of the US presidential election, social media was rife with unfounded claims of voter fraud, particularly targeting key swing states. Despite these allegations, Donald Trump declared a 'magnificent' victory, which was preceded by a surge in disinformation about voting integrity. Concurrently, polling places in five battleground states faced bomb threats, attributed to alleged Russian interference, although the FBI deemed these threats non-credible. Allies of Trump have been actively collecting and sharing incidents online to support claims of voter fraud, with many incidents having simple explanations. Additionally, false narratives about illegal voting by Haitian immigrants and mischaracterizations of a cybersecurity conference on Election Day were propagated on social media, further complicating the election landscape. The spread of misinformation and the mobilization of supporters to challenge election results reflect a growing trend in leveraging disinformation tactics to influence public perception and election outcomes.