Measuring disinformation in elections is becoming outdated

The lack of headline-grabbing, violence-inciting foreign disinformation in this year's elections is in equal parts a testament to election security officials' efforts and the evolving nature of adversaries' influence operations.

Why it matters: Disinformation is now endemic and no longer just focused on discrete events like elections.

The big picture: Foreign actors are constantly pushing false narratives in the United States, even if there isn't a specific timeline to pin it to.

• The day after the election last week, Russian operatives were still online and pushing lies, Mark Montgomery, senior director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Axios.
• "We need to take a more extended view that sees this as a persistent campaign by our adversaries that we're fighting all the time," Montgomery said.

Between the lines: Despite plenty of warnings about foreign disinformation leading up to, on and after Election Day, not much out of the usual happened.

• "Overall, it was a nothing burger," Montgomery said. "But sometimes there's a nothing burger because people take a lot of action ahead of time, so don't discount that."
• But part of that is because most races of national significance were decided pretty much on election night or shortly after, Lisa Kaplan, CEO of disinformation detection startup Alethea, told Axios.

Yes, but: Both left- and right-leaning social media users are spreading conspiracies about the security of the 2024 election after reports of a drop-off in Democratic votes, the New York Times reported.

• Left-leaners believe this means some votes are missing, while the right-leaners see the number as proof that the 2020 election was actually stolen.

Read the full story here.