Conspiracy theories swirl over canceled Iowa poll, pushed by Sanders and Yang supporters

[brooklynite]

NBC News

Supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Andrew Yang pushed false conspiracy theories on Twitter over the weekend tied to the canceled Des Moines Register poll, effectively commandeering a trending hashtag to convey the idea that their candidates are more successful than the public has been led to believe.

The Des Moines Register poll, a closely watched indicator of the Iowa race, was canceled after at least one interviewer apparently omitted Pete Buttigieg’s name from the randomized list of candidates the surveyor read. The political website Axios reported that the reason for the error was that an interviewer increased the font size of the questionnaire on a computer screen, leaving the bottom choice invisible.

But supporters of Sanders and Yang decided, without evidence, that the reason for the poll’s cancellation had to be that their candidates had high poll numbers, which the newspaper or the polling company wanted to suppress for some reason. (The Des Moines Register poll is actually one of the most respected polls in the country, known for its integrity and accuracy.)

Sanders and Yang supporters flooded the hashtag, “#ReleaseThePoll,” which was one of the top trends on Saturday night. Data collected by the open-source Twitter analytics tool Hoaxy showed that the primary drivers of the hashtag were Sanders fans alleging conspiracy theories about the poll, followed by Yang fans pushing one of their own.

[getagrip_already]

1. victims to the end.....

There is an established pattern. It's a strategy at this point to keep their bases fired up and angry.

Doesn't help anyone in the end. Except maybe trump.

[redqueen]

2. And? How is this news?

Anything to get one type of supporters to demonize the others, and get those to resent the first group, amirite M$M?

[W_HAMILTON]

5. Blaming the """M$M""" for this?

No, blame Sanders and Yang supporters for their actions.

This ain't exactly the first time they have pushed these sorts of conspiracy theories either.

[Squinch]

4. More ginned up persecution. How nice for them.

[Gothmog]

6. A change in font size appears to have been the root cause of the problem.

Link to tweet

[brooklynite]

8. That's what the Iluminati WANT you to think.....

[Gothmog]

9. Are you sure that it was not the lizard people?

[Scurrilous]

7. I love this stuff.

From the Civics section on wikipedia - In the 21st century, young people are less interested in direct political participation (i.e. being in a political party or even voting), but are motivated to use digital media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook).



As long as the young people are focused on trending and hashtags and likes and whats that other thing they won't be gumming up the lines at the polls.

[octoberlib]

10. They're a grievance cult.

[R B Garr]

11. Ugh!

It’s a conspiracy. Send money.