The Pernicious Problem of Platform Enabled Voter Intimidation

Abstract

Individuals and political organizations are increasingly taking to internet platforms to intimidate voters. This Note outlines the ways that these platforms operate to facilitate suppression of suffrage. It also surveys the landscape of federal statutory schemes available to victims of voter intimidation. It reaches the unsettling conclusion that none of these legal instruments are adequate to deter rampant online campaigns to alter voting behavior. In search of viable alternatives, it examines several institutional and legal models that may address the failures of existing federal civil statutes. It ultimately settles on the view that only greater public-private coordination between federal regulators and large platforms will thwart the pernicious problem of platform-enabled voter intimidation.

Keywords: Platforms, Internet Platforms, Voter Intimidation, Voter Manipulation, Voter Misinformation