Connecticut to pay ‘misinfo sheriff’ $150,000 to track election disinformation: report

Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill will be hiring an Election Information Security Analyst to combat disinformation about the state's elections.

"With a salary of $150,000, the person is expected to comb fringe sites like 4chan, far-right social networks like Gettr and Rumble, and mainstream social media sites to root out early misinformation narratives about voting before they go viral, and then urge the companies to remove or flag the posts that contain false information," The New York Timesreported.

The newspaper described the position as "misinformation sheriff" in the headline.

"Colorado has hired three cybersecurity experts to monitor sites for misinformation. California’s office of the secretary of state is searching for misinformation and working with the Department of Homeland Security and academics to look for patterns of misinformation across the internet," the newspaper reported. "These states, most of them under Democratic control, have been acting as voter confidence in election integrity has plummeted."

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Colorado calls its team the Rapid Response Election Security Cyber Unit.

Connecticut Deputy Secretary of the State Scott Bates was interviewed by Vice News about the state's intention.

“Once we identify the misinformation, we work with the National Association of Secretaries of State and [Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency], and they work with the social media platforms. We bat down the BS before it gets out there," Bates said.

Vice reported "the largest threat to the integrity of elections in America today comes from former President Donald Trump and his army of election deniers across the country. Connecticut’s new Misinfo Sheriff won’t be tracking Trump or GOP misinformation, unless he is specifically speaking about Connecticut."

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Vice noted Republicans are comparing it to the "Ministry of Truth" in George Orwell's 1984.

"Imagine what will happen on the new Connecticut Misinfo Sheriff’s first day in the job if Trump-supporting gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski tweets about a stolen election," Vice reported. "If the Misinfo Sheriff petitions Twitter to remove the post, then the right will be up in arms about violating First Amendment rights. If they don’t flag the tweet, then what’s the point of their position?"