EDITED BIDEN VIDEO PORTENDS SOCIAL MEDIA CHALLENGES IN 2020

As former Vice President Joe Biden’s drive for the White House gains momentum, the 77-year-old’s political opponents on both the right and left have launched an internet campaign suggesting he’s not mentally or physically equipped to serve — sometimes using altered content and other disinformation to make their case.

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The effort prompted Twitter to mark a video of Biden shared by President Donald Trump as “manipulated media” — but only after it had been viewed millions of times. Facebook added warning labels to the video and reduced its distribution on its platform after news organizations fact checked the video on its site. The Associated Press works with Facebook as a third-party fact checker.

The episode highlights the challenges social media companies face in containing the rapid spread of misleading information and raises questions about how prepared the companies are for a likely onslaught of disinformation during the 2020 campaign.

It also underscores that trafficking in misinformation is not limited to one political party: Both Sanders’ and Trump’s backers aggressively promoted the unsubstantiated notion that Biden is in cognitive decline.

“This is the worst kind of misinformation — it can impact a presidential election, and it’s being shared by the president with millions of followers,” said Jennifer Grygiel, a Syracuse University communications professor who studies disinformation and social media. “We’re going to see a lot more of it, and we need the platforms to get this right.”