Fake local news sites sway AI vote advice

Voters relying on artificial intelligence for campaign information may be reading political advertisements disguised as local journalism. In the weeks leading up to the midterm elections, a coordinated network of websites has gained traction in the search results generated by OpenAI’s ChatGPT. These sites mimic the tone and structure of established local news outlets but cover only a handful of Democratic candidates in key congressional districts.

The most prominent example is a site called the Kalamazoo Beacon. The website describes itself in its code as reporting on southwest Michigan and lakeshore communities. It has published just 16 stories, all of which focus exclusively on Democratic House candidate Sean McCann. When NPR asked ChatGPT which House candidates in Michigan’s 4th District prioritize affordability, the chatbot cited the Beacon at the top of its response. It claimed McCann had the most detailed published affordability plan.

The Beacon is one of ten sites that promote a single Democrat each in competitive House races. These are part of a larger group of 37 websites identified by the digital security firm VisionHeight. The network promotes candidates for federal, state, and local offices, including nonpartisan judicial posts. Most of the candidates promoted are Democrats. The sites often link to voting records and mainstream news articles to support their claims, but they rarely feature opposing candidates in detail.

Renée DiResta, an associate research professor at Georgetown University who studies online influence, said the practice crosses a line into deception. She noted that while campaigns optimize for AI pickup, operating as a news outlet requires a level of transparency that these sites lack. DiResta described the current environment as a competition for curation. This will have ramifications as frontier companies try to improve their ability to filter out such content.

The origin of the sites remains unclear. NPR could not find or reach the operators. JoAnna Mendoza, a Democratic candidate in Arizona promoted by the network, stated she did not know who was behind the sites. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee denied involvement in a phone call. Other candidates and supporting super PACs, including American Bridge 21st Century, did not respond to requests for comment.

Technical analysis suggests a single operator created all 37 sites. Registry data shows the websites were set up on September 15, with all but one registered within an eight-minute window. Hundreds of articles appeared in batches during September and October. VisionHeight reported that the volume and timing suggest the use of AI to generate the content. The sites explicitly allow AI crawlers to scrape their data and include a file called llms.txt to help chatbots index their articles.

In testing, ChatGPT cited at least one article from the network in 19 out of 37 queries. In 17 of those instances, it cited one of the sites posing as local news. Gemini, Google’s chatbot, did not cite any links from the group. Google search also did not surface the sites in its first page results, though a Google spokesperson said the company detected a policy violation and took swift action when one site ranked higher than Ballotpedia in early October.

OpenAI spokesperson Nate Evans said the company cites a range of sources to allow people to make their own judgments. He added that the company takes action to improve model responses when issues are raised. However, after NPR flagged the sites to OpenAI, the Kalamazoo Beacon was still cited in five subsequent queries. In some of those responses, McCann retained the distinction of having the most detailed affordability plan, while in others he did not.

Patrick Warren, a professor at Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub, compared the phenomenon to ad flyers that look like newspapers. He noted that reading AI answers without evaluating underlying sources is a modern version of a long-standing pattern. The network of sites continues to influence how voters receive information as they prepare to cast ballots in November.