Miles Parks

Disinformation — about the Jan. 6 attack, COVID-19, vaccines, etc. — shaped the nation's politics in 2021 and likely will continue to do so throughout the coming year.

Recent off-year elections showed that voters may not be so invested in making it easier to vote while Republicans may benefit from higher voter turnout than they previously had thought.

Normally, more involvement in democracy is a good thing. But officials worry people could be motivated to take their election watcher roles too far.

Does social media use harm children? That's one question senators will be asking executives from YouTube, Snap and TikTok at Tuesday's hearing on Capitol Hill.

Bradley Tusk, a venture capitalist and former political operative, announced a new $10 million grant for internet voting development on Thursday.

Seen as more convenient than voting in person and more efficient than voting by mail, ballot drop boxes were used more than ever in 2020. Now, drop boxes are facing backlash in some Republican states.

Earlier this month, Republican Larry Elder refused to promise to accept the recall election results. His campaign had set up a website where people could report suspicious election activity.

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is favored to beat a recall attempt and keep his office. Still, some Republicans are already setting the stage to blame a loss on voter fraud.

A bipartisan group is hoping to support voting workers who have faced unprecedented scrutiny and pressure for more than a year now.

While Democrats have long opposed voter ID laws, their decade-long effort to convince voters hasn't budged public opinion. Large bipartisan majorities still favor showing an ID to vote.

As Democrats try to pass voting rights legislation through Congress, some members of the party have expressed an openness to one GOP-backed policy they have long opposed: voter ID requirements.

Voting officials, who used to operate in relative anonymity, are facing threats and intense pressure as a large chunk of American voters have no confidence the system is fair.

In May, Ben Shapiro's website The Daily Wire had more Facebook engagement on its articles than The New York Times, CNN, The Washington Post and NBC News combined.

"It's an audit in name only," says one former election security official. "It's a threat to the overall confidence of democracy, all in pursuit of continuing a narrative that we know to be a lie."

Republicans in Arizona ordered an audit to quell voters' doubts about Biden's win. A private company with no experience in elections has been looking at the ballots, but critics say there are issues.

The company has reached out to a number of researchers in recent months, though those same researchers are skeptical about the company's motivations.

A vast network of professional vaccine skeptics on social media has been waiting for a development like the Johnson & Johnson pause. Now experts say they will milk it for all it's worth and more.

The leaders of Facebook, Twitter, and Google were not eager to admit fault when it comes to bad information on their platforms, but it's clear Congress is getting closer to regulation.

There's no link between COVID-19 vaccines and death. But a new NPR analysis finds stories implying a connection have gone viral this year at a dramatic rate.

Ahead of congressional testimony from the heads of Facebook, Twitter and Google, a new NPR analysis finds that articles linking COVID-19 vaccines to death are driving misinformation online.