Jenny Badanis, general manager of the programme, says:Democracy ForwardAt Microsoft, for the Politico Tech podcast: “I think people should expect that noise levels — the kind of chaos and confusion — will continue through Election Day, and then certainly in the days afterward.”
Microsoft’s election defense efforts are focusing on what it calls foreign adversaries because they have “the funding to survive” and are willing to “pick up any successful narratives, regardless of the source,” Badanis said.
But many rumors and conspiracy theories are expected to emerge in the coming days from American political groups. It raised the Republican candidate Donald Trump And his allies proactively made allegations about voter fraud in swing states like Pennsylvania.
Since 2020, attempts by tech companies and academic researchers to crack down on disinformation have drawn accusations of censorship from Republicans. Some technology companies, especially Elon Musk’s X, have backed away from their efforts to monitor political content this election cycle.
For its part, Microsoft tried to blaze a different path. “What you’ll find is that we’ve been more honest about what we’ve seen this cycle than in any year before,” Badanis said. “We feel the American public deserves more information, not less.”
