Ranking Member Raskin Presses Big Tech to Enforce Its Rules Against Trump’s Mail Voting Lies Ahead of Midterms

Ranking Member Demands Briefings From Google, Meta, TikTok and X on Combating Election Disinformation

Washington, D.C. (October 23, 2026)—Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, demanded answers from Google, Meta, TikTok and X about their efforts to stop election misinformation from spreading on their platforms that discourages Americans from voting and creates mass confusion ahead of the November midterms. In letters to the four companies, Ranking Member Raskin pressed the companies to enforce their own rules prohibiting content that misleads voters as President Trump spreads false claims about mail-in ballots and his Administration cuts resources that help election officials combat disinformation.

“Posts suggesting that a lawfully cast mail-in ballot will not be counted—even if made by senior Republican officials—are not a matter of opinion. They are false statements that clearly fall within your own prohibitions and standards,” wrote Ranking Member Raskin.

Trump has falsely claimed that “elections can never be honest with mail in ballots/voting.” His Administration has also slashed election security resources and programs, undermining state and local officials’ ability to fight coordinated efforts to mislead voters about how, when, and where they can validly cast their votes. Meanwhile, foreign and domestic actors are spreading false claims about our elections, and influence operations are using AI-generated images, videos and audio to deceive Americans.

Our election system is essentially secure, and Americans should be confident that their timely votes, whether cast by mail or otherwise, will be counted. But lies about mail voting can leave Americans unsure whether their ballots will count or how to cast their votes. The companies behind some of the country’s most widely used platforms—used by hundreds of millions of Americans, over half of whom get their news from social media—already prohibit this kind of deception. Ranking Member Raskin is demanding answers about whether they are enforcing those rules:

• Google and YouTube: Google’s advertising policies prohibit “claims that are demonstrably false and could significantly undermine participation or trust in an electoral or democratic process.” YouTube’s Community Guidelines prohibit misleading information about how to vote and false claims that could materially discourage voting. Ads or videos suggesting that lawful mail ballots will not count fall within these prohibitions.
• Meta: Meta’s Community Standards commit the company to removing misinformation “that is likely to directly contribute to interference with the functioning of political processes.” Posts suggesting that lawful mail ballots will not count fall within this prohibition. Meta pledged in February to enforce its policies during the midterms.
• TikTok: TikTok’s Community Guidelines prohibit misinformation about civic and electoral processes, regardless of intent, including how ballots are counted and elections are certified. This month, TikTok announced that it would step up monitoring for false information and misleading AI-generated content.
• X: X’s civic integrity policy prohibits “misleading information relating to votes not being counted.” X also recently suspended more than 13,000 accounts tied to three suspected Iranian, Russian and Chinese political influence operations. The company must explain whether any of those accounts posted about voting procedures or mail-in ballots.

Ranking Member Raskin requested briefings from all four companies on how they are enforcing their policies, whether they have increased staffing or other capacity ahead of the midterms, and how they are tracking false and misleading information about the elections. He also asked whether the companies’ rules cover posts that misrepresent the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on mail voting and whether anyone in the U.S. Government or White House has approached the companies about their election misinformation policies in the past year.

“We plan to exercise vigilant oversight of your platform and other social media companies to ensure that propaganda and fabrications indeed do not work to prevent Americans on your platform from participating in our democratic process,” wrote Ranking Member Raskin. 

Click here to read the letter to Google and YouTube.
Click here to read the letter to Meta.
Click here to read the letter to TikTok.

Click here to read the letter to X. 

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