Big Tech could back Trump

Professor Srinivasan says there is no evidence for this claim, and goes so far as to say he thinks a decision was made some time ago "where there was a recognition by Trump and his supporters or his maybe his advisors that setting up some sort of rhetorical war or conflict with Big Tech companies, especially Google, might work to support Trump's political interests, as a so called populist outsider, out of the elites' world, which we know in many in many senses is not true -but it's working. It might work as a political strategy."

By doing this, Trump and his administration set up a safety net for someone to blame -"a mechanism by which the public will be even further disoriented."

This is not to say that Google has no threat to democracy -but does show how politicians can manipulate our lack of knowledge of how it works, and wariness of Big Tech, to form their own narratives.

What will happen in the event of an unclear result?

The 2020 election is seeing huge numbers of mail-in votes due to Covid-19, meaning the results of some races will almost certainly not be clear on election night, or even for the days following it.

"During that period of uncertainty, people will be vulnerable to the spread of rumors, misinformation, and politically-motivated disinformation," Professor Starbird warns. "Disinformation could come from domestic actors (trying to gain advantage for their preferred candidate) or foreign actors (trying to inflict damage to democracy by reducing our trust in the election process)." She also warns that an unclear result could lead to widespread misleading narratives about voter fraud, particularly on social media.

Combine this with Donald Trump's continued attacks on polls, reliable media outlets, and virtually anyone that stands in his way, we have a potential democratic danger ahead of us. "There is no question in my mind that if you combine the ambiguity and distress of the pandemic, in the mailing process, and the ambiguity and distrust that I would say has been pushed forward by the President's statements and lack of assurances that he will support a democratic outcome, or a lack of clarity even around what that looks like, we're setting ourselves up for a huge mess along the lines that we have not seen before -even including 2016," Professor Srinivasan warns.

Although Big Tech companies have taken some steps to control misinformation -for example Twitter highlighting misleading tweets, Facebook clamping down on political ads, congressional hearings for Big Tech -there has bene little fundamental change in how they work in terms of political transparency and accountability.