How Elon Musk's Twitter could influence the midterm elections. – The Washington Post

With less than two weeks until the midterm elections, about 20 employees from across Twitter have volunteered to help the social network’s internal “Election Squad” enforce its rules at a crucial moment for U.S. politics. In crash-course training sessions this week, the volunteers learned the basics of how to spot election misinformation, detect bots pushing propaganda and flag potential violations of Twitter’s rules to the company’s policy staff.Since 2018, the call for volunteers has been part of an all-hands-on-deck approach to major elections, as the company’s overstretched content moderators work around-the-clock for a week before and after the vote to stanch the tide of viral falsehoods, intimidation campaigns and foreign influence operations.But this election cycle, the company is in greater disarray than ever — increasing the risk that cagey political operatives will be able to use the platform to deceive voters or undermine the legitimacy of results. Twitter has weathered a year of managerial chaos since a CEO change, hundreds of employees have reportedly left and a high-level whistleblower warned that the company lacks the resources to enforce its own election policies globally.Adding to the uncertainty is that billionaire Elon Musk is expected to close his $44 billion acquisition of…
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