Tech's 'Nightmare Scenario' for 2020

Social media companies say they’re preparing for a protracted battle against online misinformation come Election Day, particularly given there may not be an immediate winner. Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of site integrity, said his nightmare scenario for the election is that bad actors use any delays in the outcome to stoke “fear, uncertainty and doubt” online. Unprecedented problems for an unprecedented election: “When we talk about the election, we talk about the leadup to election night, we talk about election day as a pivotal moment. This year is different,” Roth said. “We should be talking about election day, November 3rd, as being one moment of a series of moments in the weeks around the election that are going to be decisive in terms of what the results of it are.” Tech companies including Twitter, Facebook and Google are preparing for a scenario in which a winner is not immediately declared because of extra time to count mail-in ballots and the possibility of President Donald Trump declaring the results invalid.