as much or better than i. moments in american history, there are moments that clarify things. but don t necessarily fundamentally change things. so if you think about, that our history it is the civil war, we get a clear for moment. we swear to bring equality to african americans. within have 100 years to try to get it done. we have this moment of clarification, and it takes hundred years to get it done. we have the same thing with women. a moment of clarification in the early 1900s, and then another hundred years in order for it to get accomplished. i think this is a clarifying a moments that proves out that america is a multicultural, multiethnic democracy. this is one of those moments. and people, the majority of americans, want. it there are spaces in america that. down as this happened before in
multiracial, multiethnic democracy. we know, ben, from past experience, a lot of disinformation is online. we saw elon musk, i hate to have to talk about him again, but he tweeted today essentially instructions to his fan base that they need to vote for republicans. vote for the party that is doing the election denying. what is the significance of him doing that in your view? a big deal. he has 110 million followers. he owns the platform. he can do whatever he wants with it, as we have unfortunately come to realize over the last few weeks. to me, that s not the bigger problem. the bigger problem is this much larger infrastructure change that s going on at that company that will make it so pretty cany they are, which is anything they want, really. they can say they re an election official or a cdc worker, and just push conspiracy theories. you know, with the hope that elon musk has pushed conspiracy theories as recently as last week, will push it maybe tomorrow or something. so fund
election deniers. with several of them running for governor, attorney general, secretary of state in key swing states. they could wield the power to pull off what donald trump tried unsuccessfully to do the last time around. there are other alarming efforts we have seen to stifle democracy. since the last election, 20 states have passed more restrictive voting laws that will be in effect tomorrow. we have seen intimidation efforts from the likes of those armed men in tactical gear at ballot drop boxes in arizona. we have election workers across the about country who fear for their safety after receiving violent threats and the ever growing maga infrastructure spreading conspiracy theories and lies that threaten our democracy. joining me is ben collins who covers disinformation, and janay nelson, and i want to start with you first. what is the level of threat in your view to voters based on disinformation and potential violence? the level of threat is significant. we have folks across
all, a lot of activists actually use these platforms as well, to try and activate voters and inactivate communities. so, what does it look like to you the future of a world, maybe where twitter is not the place where activists feel comfortable going in order to activate, you know, people like what we saw with george floyd? that movement? yeah, listen, activists, organizers, people who really care about democracy, freedom, and justice, or nothing if not adaptable. so i think every, i have every confidence that if somehow they are displaced from twitter because they find it repugnant, they find it to be a toxic space, that they will find another place to exchange information to incubate ideas and to activate and organize people. twitter is not the only, you know, gig in town. but we are inventive. we are creative. and people will find another way to communicate. but i will say that the timing of this situation, twitter, cannot be more unfortunate.
on the ground, and we have had them since early voting and we re seeing intimidation. we re seeing efforts to suppress the vote, particularly the black vote, in particular. we re also seeing voters come out in record numbers. we see people queueing around the block. we see people, young voters in particular, making sure that their vote is cast and their voice is heard. so we re very encouraged by what we re seeing on the ground. there are many obstacles but there is more will power to overcome those obstacles and that is what it s going to take to insure we don t lose our democracy in this election. this election is historic. it will be historic by any measure because it will determine whether we have a democracy in 2024, whether we elect people who will protect our elections or whether we will put election deniers and others in office who undermine this very fragile experiment of