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Americans are going to the polls, deciding whether Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump should become the 47th president of the United States of America. It’s the end of an election cycle that’s already seen legal challenges and even violence, and that’s split Silicon Valley between all-in Trump fans, Harris backers, and people hedging their bets. The outcome will determine the future of everything from climate change to the measles.
While the votes are cast and counted, online platforms will be making calls about the line between valuable speech and disinformation or calls to violence. (Their owners may also be actively campaigning.) Elections watchdogs will be on the lookout for voter suppression and false information about how to vote. And we’ll be posting news about it here.
Here’s how social media platforms are planning to deal with election threats.
Some platforms will permit claims that the 2020 election was rigged, but prohibit premature victory claims or voter intimidation. Social media has been under pressure from Republicans to be more hands-off in their moderation policies, and recently, several tech leaders have shown a willingness to step back. The Washington Post breaks down the different policies at Meta, Google/YouTube, TikTok, and X.
Can Philadelphia’s ballot counters outrun election lies?
The room where it happens has metal beams and harsh overhead lighting. Paper whizzes through conveyor belts on large gears near tall, human-sized cages with keypad locks.
Though it resembles one, this is not a factory. It’s Philadelphia’s mail-in ballot-counting facility, where somewhere around 200,000 votes are expected to be tallied beginning on Election Day. The longer that tally takes, the more misinformation could seep into a deep well of paranoia and distrust over the democratic process — one that overflowed four years ago in a violent attack on the US Capitol.
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The grievance-driven blueprint for the next Trump administration
Image: Mr.Nelson design for The Verge / Getty Images
For the better part of this year, Project 2025 has been a catchall among Democrats for the threat former President Donald Trump poses to American society. The more than 900-page Mandate for Leadership, crafted by conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, is a sprawling and often contradictory mix of ideas from more than 100 organizations. It’s tied together not by unified policy predictions but by a series of preoccupations: China; “wokeness”; climate denialism; and a commitment to gutting or abolishing federal agencies. It includes plans that would remake America’s approach to technology, but like many things in the document, its authors can’t exactly agree on how.
Trump has attempted to distance himself from the policy plan, but it’s tied to him by numerous threads. His running mate, JD Vance, is friends with Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, and Vance even wrote the introduction to Roberts’ forthcoming book, Dawn’s Early Light. (The book’s publication, initially slated for September, was postponed until after the election.) And some of Project 2025’s chapters were written by Trump’s own former administration officials, including FCC commissioner Brendan Carr and Department of Homeland Security official Ken Cuccinelli.
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The pragmatist’s guide to the 2024 presidential election
Image: Mr.Nelson design for The Verge / Getty Images
It’s easy to look at a gridlocked legislature or unpredictable judicial decisions and feel like American presidential elections don’t matter. What’s the point of getting someone in the White House if they can’t get legislation on their desk to sign or veto and courts can shut down their every move? Politicians always break their promises, goes the cynical — and often reasonable — grumble. Why pay attention in the first place?
In many respects, the president is a figurehead, but the office of the presidency is a job with a concrete description and very specific levers of power that connect to many of the areas The Verge covers. For these issues and more, whoever wins on November 5th will set a direct course for the next four years and perhaps longer.
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