Why misinformation didn't wreck the midterms

Many election deniers on the ballot, particularly for the crucial secretary-of-state roles, lost their races. This is because platforms, governments, and the media took countermeasures that were at least partially effective, based on their lessons from 2016, 2018, and 2020.  Though misinformation remains present in large quantities, this time it had less reach, was more spread out, and was harder to find. There were few calls to violence on major platforms, but many on alternative platforms like Telegram, where poll workers were doxxed and there were calls for protest and "coded calls" for potential violence. Factors that helped curb the impact of online mis- and disinformation included:

• De-platforming: Efforts by big tech firms to explicitly ban misinformation about voting helped push falsehoods to small platforms where those narratives couldn't spread as widely.
• Too many new apps. A slew of new social and messaging apps have sprung up since the Jan. 6 Capitol siege, making memes and content around voting misinformation harder to spread to the masses quickly. 
• An overall rejection of election deniers. Election deniers were rejected in the midterms, with notable wins for secretaries of state Brad Raffensperger in Georgia and Katie Hobbs in Arizona, who defeated the Trump-endorsed Kari Lake in the governor's race. Public concessions by many of the losers in these races took to wind the out of the idea that the elections were rigged.
• Defamation fears. Fox has faced a major defamation lawsuit by voting machine company Dominion after it broadcast conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was rigged, and that inspired more caution on cable TV. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who spread the narrative that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was fake, was recently fined $1.44 billion in a lawsuit brought by victims' families.
• More education: Nonprofits, departments of state, media organizations, and campaigns ran voter education initiatives in an attempt to "pre-bunk" misinformation ahead of the midterm elections.