Скачать или смотреть Conspiracy theories and lies drive rift within GOP

A faction of local, county and state Republican officials is pushing lies, misinformation and conspiracy theories that echo those that helped inspire the violent U.S. Capitol siege, online messaging that is spreading quickly through GOP ranks fueled by algorithms that boost extreme content.

The Associated Press reviewed public and private social media accounts of nearly 1,000 federal, state, and local elected and appointed Republican officials nationwide, many of whom have voiced support for the Jan. 6 insurrection or demanded that the 2020 presidential election be overturned, sometimes in deleted posts or now-removed online forums.

Working with artificial intelligence company Deep Discovery, AP helped build a classification algorithm that matched officials to accounts on the right-wing aligned Parler. AP reporters hand-verified each match using an archived Parler dataset provided by New York University researcher Max Aliopoulios containing 13 million user profiles and 183 million posts between August 2018 and January 10, when Parler was taken offline for several weeks. AP also reviewed officials' use of alternate social media sites like Gab and Telegram.

The rhetoric exposes the GOP's internal struggle over whether the party can include traditional conservative politicians, conspiracy theorists and militias.