Twitter declined Kentucky officials' request to remove misinformation about election

Joe Sonka | Courier Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption Kentucky governor's race: Andy Beshear, Jacqueline Coleman speak Governor Matt Bevin gave his concession speech and Andy Beshear and Jacqueline Coleman held a press conference.

Twitter declined requests from Kentucky election officials to take down tweets spreading misinformation about shredded ballots in the days following November's election, according to emails obtained through an open records request.

In an email to a Twitter representative a week after the election, Amy Cohen — the executive director of the National Association of State Election Directors — said the company's rationale for not removing such tweets is a "significant loophole" that could hinder Twitter's efforts to prevent the spread of misinformation in future elections.

The matter revolved around a tweet posted at 8:39 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 5, in which the user claimed he "just shredded a box of Republican mail in ballots," adding, "Bye bye Bevin."

Twitter permanently suspended the account later that night for violating its policies regarding "election integrity."

However, a screenshot of the deleted tweet soon began to go viral, as it was tweeted by users who suggested it was credible evidence of election fraud that could have sealed Republican Gov. Matt Bevin's 5,000-vote defeat to Democratic Attorney General Andy Beshear.

According to emails in the following days, officials with the Kentucky State Board of Elections and the National Association of State Election Directors pleaded with Twitter representatives to have such tweets removed, only to be told that they did not violate the company's terms of use.

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On Nov. 6, Bevin held a press conference to explain his decision to request a recanvass of the vote, making allegations of widespread election fraud without providing any specific evidence of such. One of those claims was that "thousands of absentee ballots" were "illegally counted."

That evening, Cohen sent an email to Twitter's public policy manager, Kevin Kane, saying she had just spoken to Jared Dearing, the executive of Kentucky's Board of Elections, who expressed his frustration with the screenshot going viral on Twitter.

"As you know, the gubernatorial race in Kentucky is very close and is heading to a recanvass, so this kind of misinformation is not helping with voter concerns about malfeasance," wrote Cohen, asking if there was any way for Twitter to help.

In a reply sent to Cohen and Dearing, Kane thanked her for flagging the issue and said he would share it with his team.

Cohen followed up with an email on Friday, and after an apparent phone conversation between Cohen and Kane, she replied again and wrote that she did not believe the tweets in question "offer the context you're using to justify not taking them down."

Cohen said Twitter's refusal to remove those tweets will "have a chilling effect on voter confidence in the system because of the suggestion that valid mail ballots are being destroyed," noting that Dearing's office was dealing with calls from concerned voters about those false claims.

Cohen wrote to Kane again the following Tuesday to "express for the record how ineffective this policy implementation is."

"What you’re telling us is that anyone can create an account, tweet something inflammatory knowing their account will likely be suspended, and then disseminate the inflammatory tweet as a screenshot on another active account or just sit back and watch while unknowing people disseminate the inflammatory tweet," Cohen wrote.

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She added that "this is a significant loophole in your policy that renders the rest of the policy ineffective."

Cohen confirmed to The Courier Journal that Kane told her the tweets in question added "context" to the screenshot, thus did not violate its policy.

However, a review of tweets sent in the days after the election that included the screenshot and were not removed shows many not only provided inaccurate context, but suggested the original claim was credible and evidence of nefarious election fraud in Kentucky.

The morning after the election, user @sassysouthern10 tweeted a screenshot of the deleted tweet to Bevin and President Donald Trump and wrote: "We DEMAND an IMMEDIATE INVESTIGATION into this & other irregularities in our electoral process Voter fraud is NOT a joke STOP TALKING & PROSECUTE VOTER FRAUD ..." The account has more than 48,000 followers and the tweet was retweeted 252 times.

Twitter user @CB618444, with more than 74,000 followers, shared the screenshot and wrote: "Same sh*t, different election. What’s the plan folks? #Democrats cheat," tagging Trump, Sen. Mitch McConnell and other prominent conservatives.

User @ChatByCC, with more than 315,000 followers, also tweeted the screenshot and wrote: "Bevin refuses to concede and is challenging election results. Maybe start with this tweet admitting destruction by shredding of Republican mail in ballots..."

Asked why Twitter did not take down such tweets at the request of Dearing and Cohen, a spokesperson for the company sent an emailed statement to The Courier Journal indicating the company will continue to examine its policies on election integrity.

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"As a uniquely open service, Twitter enables the clarification of falsehoods in real-time," read the statement from Twitter. "We proactively enforce policies and use technology to halt the spread of content that is shared through manipulative tactics. Our rules clearly prohibit using the service for the purpose of manipulating or interfering in elections. This includes posting or sharing content that may suppress voter turnout or mislead people about when, where, or how to vote.

"We continue to critically examine additional safeguards we can implement to protect the conversation occurring on Twitter."

Asked about Twitter's refusal to take down the tweets in question, Dearing did not directly mention the company, but said he hoped social media giants would make combating such misinformation a high priority.

“The use of 'dis or misinformation' to disrupt free and fair elections is unacceptable in any format," wrote Dearing in an emailed statement. "It is the continued hope of the State Board of Elections that social media companies do everything in their power to minimize the distribution of this disruptive and often malicious content.”

The CEO of VineSight, a company that tracks political misinformation on social media, says it was able to track thousands of bot-like accounts spreading tweets that included the screenshot immediately after the election, suggesting a coordinated effort.

Twitter disputed VineSight's claim in a statement, saying it found no evidence of "bot activity" spreading misinformation about election fraud in Kentucky, and that attempts to spread misinformation using screenshots of the tweet were instead driven by "organic, authentic conversation."

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Reach reporter Joe Sonka at jsonka@courierjournal.com or 502-582-4472 and follow him on Twitter at @joesonka. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courierjournal.com/subscribe.