Shocking Revelations: How Anonymity Fuels False Voter Registration Claims

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NEW YORK (AP) — After a user on the social platform X, using a pseudonym, claimed that a government website had shown a sharp increase in voter registrations without photo IDs in three states crucial to the presidential contest this year, there was a flurry of reposts and expressions of shock from public figures. Elon Musk, owner of X, replied twice to the post, calling it "extremely concerning."

"Are migrants registering to vote using SSN?" asked Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, an ally of former President Donald Trump, on Instagram, referring to the Social Security number.

Trump himself took to his own social platform within hours to ask, "Who are all those voters registering without a Photo ID in Texas, Pennsylvania, and Arizona??? What is going on???" State election officials were soon compelled to respond. They clarified that the user had distorted Social Security Administration data and that actual voter registrations during the cited time period were much lower than the numbers being shared online.

Stephen Richer, the recorder in Maricopa County, Arizona, refuted the claim in multiple X posts, while Janet Nelson, the secretary of state in Texas, issued a statement calling it "totally inaccurate." Despite their efforts to correct the record, the false claim had already spread widely. Within three days, the pseudonymous user's claim amassed more than 63 million views on X, according to the platform's metrics. In comparison, a thorough explanation from Richer reached only 2.4 million users.

This incident highlights how social media accounts, shielded by anonymity through clever slogans and cartoon avatars, dominate right-wing political discussion online even as they spread false information.

These accounts benefit from a massive reach boosted by engagement algorithms, reduced efforts by social media companies to remove phony or harmful material, and endorsements from high-profile figures like Musk. They can also generate substantial financial rewards from X and other platforms by fueling outrage against Democrats.

Many of these internet personalities present themselves as patriotic citizen journalists uncovering real corruption. However, their unchecked spread of misinformation while disguising their true motives is concerning, especially in a presidential election year, experts say.

Samuel Woolley, director of the Propaganda Research Lab at the University of Texas at Austin, notes, "They are exploiting a long history of trust in American whistleblowers and anonymous sources."

The claim that spread online misused Social Security Administration data tracking routine requests made by states to verify the identity of individuals who registered to vote using the last four digits of their Social Security number. These requests are often made multiple times for the same individual, meaning they do not necessarily correspond one-to-one with people registering to vote.

The larger implication is that the cited data represents people who entered the U.S. illegally and are supposedly registering to vote with Social Security numbers they received for work authorization documents. But only U.S. citizens are allowed to vote in federal elections, and illegal voting by non-citizens is exceedingly rare because states have processes to prevent it.

Accounts that do not disclose the identities of those behind them have thrived online for years, gaining followers for their content on politics, humor, human rights, and more. People have used anonymity on social media to avoid persecution by repressive authorities or to speak freely about sensitive experiences. Many left-wing protesters adopted anonymous online identities during the Occupy Wall Street movement of the early 2010s.

The meteoric rise of a group of right-wing pseudonymous influencers who act as alternative information sources has been more recent. It coincided with a decline in public trust in government and media through the 2020 presidential election and the COVID-19 pandemic.

These influencers frequently spread misinformation and misleading content, often in service of recurring narratives such as alleged voter fraud, the "woke agenda," or Democrats supposedly encouraging a surge of people through illegal immigration to steal elections or replace whites. They often use similar content and reshare each other's posts.

The account that posted the recent misinformation has also spread bogus information about the Israel-Hamas war, sharing a post last fall that falsely claimed to show a Palestinian "crisis actor" pretending to be seriously injured.

Since his takeover of Twitter in 2022, Musk has nurtured the rise of these accounts, frequently commenting on their posts and sharing their content while protecting their anonymity. In March, X updated its privacy policy to ban people from exposing the identity of an anonymous user.

Musk also rewards high engagement with financial payouts. The X user who spread the false information about new voter registrants has racked up more than 2.4 million followers since joining the platform in 2022. The user reported earning more than $10,000 from X's new creator ad revenue program in a post last July. X did not respond to a request for comment, which was met with an automated reply.

Tech watchdogs emphasize the importance of maintaining spaces for anonymous voices online but stress that they should not be allowed to spread lies without accountability.

"Companies must vigorously enforce terms of service and content policies that promote election integrity and information integrity generally," said Kate Ruane, director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology.

The success of these accounts shows how financially savvy users have deployed the online trolling playbook to their advantage, said Dale Beran, a lecturer at Morgan State University and the author of "It Came from Something Awful: How a Toxic Troll Army Accidentally Memed Donald Trump into Office."

"The art of trolling is to get the other person enraged," he said. "And we now know getting someone enraged really fuels engagement and gives you followers and so will get you paid. So now it's sort of a business."

Some pseudonymous accounts on X have used their brands to build loyal audiences on other platforms, from Instagram to the video-sharing platform Rumble and the encrypted messaging platform Telegram. The accounts themselves — and many of their followers — publicly promote their pride in America and its founding documents.

It's concerning that many Americans place their trust in these shadowy online sources without thinking critically about who is behind them or how they may want to harm the country, said Kara Alaimo, a communications professor at Farleigh Dickinson University who has written about toxicity on social media.

"We know that foreign governments, including China and Russia, are actively creating social media accounts designed to sow domestic discord because they think weakening our social fabric gives their countries a competitive advantage," she said. "And they're right."

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