The worst disinformation of the presidential debate

During Tuesday’s presidential debate, Donald Trump continued to falsely claim that the 2020 election was rigged, when in fact he won.

That wasn’t the only debunked conspiracy theory or outright lie the former president advanced during his and Vice President Kamala Harris’s debate. He also repeated unsubstantiated stories, recently going viral on social media, that migrants from Haiti are stealing and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, along with false claims that some Democrats want the right to “execute” babies after they’re born.

Separately, his reposting of deepfake photos on social media that made it appear as if he had been endorsed by Taylor Swift finally drew a response from the megastar. She endorsed Harris in a lengthy Instagram post after the debate, citing the AI-generated images.

It’s not new for candidates to stretch or twist the truth to suit their own interests during a debate. The media and other fact-checkers were already busy before Trump entered politics. But the amplification of well-known conspiracy theories and outright lies takes things to a new level.

While Harris wasn’t entirely accurate in her claims — for example, by exaggerating Trump’s stance on abortion — fact-checking her claims showed that they were generally within the realm of truth, but sometimes lacked context. Conversely, Trump made more blatantly false and debunked claims, and promoted false claims he had taken from social media.

While disinformation is often amplified by technologies like social media, the future of technology and the tech industry were not really discussed during what may ultimately be the only debate between the two.

Harris touched briefly on the need for investment to ensure the U.S. wins the race in AI and quantum computing. But topics like potential regulation of social media companies, national data privacy laws and the potential eventual ban on TikTok were never discussed.

Below are the technical conclusions of Tuesday’s debate:

Trump continues to make false claims about the 2020 election

As he has done for the past three and a half years, Trump continued to spread the lie that he actually won the 2020 election over now-President Joe Biden, despite never providing any evidence for that claim.

“Look, there’s so much evidence. You just have to look at it,” Trump said. “And they should have sent it back to the legislature for approval.”

The debate moderators pointed out that after the 2020 election, Trump and his supporters filed 60 lawsuits against state and local election officials across the country alleging election fraud, but none of the judges in those cases found evidence of widespread fraud. Trump argued that the cases were dismissed based on formalities, rather than a lack of evidence.

He blamed immigrants and Democrats’ willingness to let them into the country for voter fraud, but provided no evidence of that either.

“Our elections are bad,” he said. “And a lot of these illegal immigrants that are coming in, they’re trying to get them to vote.”

Voting is illegal for non-citizens and there is no evidence that it happens on a large scale.

According to Harris, the outcome of the 2020 election was clear.

“Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people,” she said. “But we cannot afford to have a president of the United States who, as he has done in the past, tries to thwart the will of the voters in a free and fair election.”

Trump addresses myths about migrants on social media

Immigration is one of the biggest issues in this year’s election, and is seen by many pundits as an issue that could win Trump votes. So it’s no surprise that Trump, regardless of the moderators’ question, tried to redirect the conversation back to that.

He accused immigrants and migrants of everything from stealing American jobs to voter fraud, without any evidence of either, instead citing unverified social media posts. But the most shocking claim was his repetition of unsubstantiated and dehumanizing accusations of migrants stealing and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.

According to local news reportsSomeone posted on a local Facebook group that “her neighbor’s daughter’s friend” had lost her cat and found it hanging from a branch at a Haitian neighbor’s house, being cut up to be eaten.

The post was debunked by local police and the Springfield city manager, who both said they had received no reports that this had actually happened. But that didn’t stop it from going viral on the internet or Trump from repeating the story during the debate.

“A lot of cities don’t want to talk about it because they’re ashamed of it,” Trump said. “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came here. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a disgrace.”

When moderators responded that the story had been denied by the city manager, Trump insisted that “people on television” had said their dog had been taken and eaten, but he gave no details.

Democrats Don’t Want to ‘Execute’ Newborns

In perhaps one of the most horrific misrepresentations of the push to codify abortion rights nationally, Trump falsely claimed during the debate that Democrats could try to expand abortion rights to allow the “executions” of newborns.

He pointed to vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who signed a bill last year guaranteeing abortion rights in his state, as one of the “radical” Democrats who would allow it.

“Her vice-presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine,” Trump said. “He also says execution after birth, it’s execution, no longer abortion, because the baby is born, is fine. And that’s not fine with me.”

The comments prompted a moment of fact-checking by the moderators who made it clear that it is not legal in any state to kill a baby after it is born. And Watz has never made a public statement say something about all of that.

Trump was likely referring to a Senate bill which was approved by 49 Democrats but blocked by Republicans in 2022. It would preserve the current constitutional standard for late-term abortions, which allows states to restrict abortions after fetal viability has been achieved, except when abortions are necessary to protect the health or life of the mother.

However, abortion opponents have misrepresented the bill on social media, claiming it would allow abortions during childbirth. CDC research it turns out that less than 1% of abortions occur after 21 weeks.

AI Provides Real Taylor Swift Recommendation

After the debate, Taylor Swift finally broke her silence on social media about the deepfaked photos she posted to Trump’s Truth Social account, which gave the impression that she was supporting him.

In a long Instagram postThe singer-songwriter supported Harris, saying the deepfakes Trump promoted “fueled my fears around AI and the dangers of spreading disinformation.”

“It made me realize that I need to be very transparent about my real plans for this election as a voter,” Swift said. “The easiest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.”

Trump recently posted picturesat least some of which appeared to be AI-generated, to his Truth Social account that implied he was supported by Swift and her fans. The images, which he placed above the text “I accept,” were originally posted on Xformerly known as Twitter, by a user who labeled them as satire. One of the images reposted on Trump’s Truth Social account even has the word “satire” in the image text.

On the other hand, Trump also has Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign falsely accused of deepfaking a photo taken at Detroit Wayne County Metropolitan Airport, saying she “AI’d” it to show a huge crowd that he claims didn’t exist. But numerous other videos and photos of the event showed a crowd similar in size to that in Harris’ campaign photo. Local reporters at the event estimated the crowd at around 15,000 people.