CAUSE, EFFECT

Banning Trump From Twitter and Facebook Sent Misinformation Plummeting, Research Says

The commander in chief was a potent spreader of false claims, and mentions of election fraud dropped 73 percent after his account disappeared.

Banning President Donald Trump from Twitter and Facebook sent online misinformation, specifically false assertions of election fraud, plummeting, new research says. Zignal Labs, a San Francisco digital analytics company, found misinformation about election fraud fell by 73 percent, The Washington Post reports. Mentions of election fraud dropped from 2.5 million to 688,000 in the week after Trump’s Jan. 8 ban from the social networks, according to the company. Trump had for months heavily pushed claims of widespread voter fraud and a “stolen” election. The companies disabled his accounts for violating their terms of service related to fomenting violence in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol building.