Washington DC - A polling firm recently admitted to injecting fabricated polling data into US elections as part of a "social experiment."
In a message shared on its website, Median Strategies announced is has "concluded its polling project," withdrawn recently published polling data, and will not be sharing any more in the future.
The company explained it was "created as a short-term social experiment examining how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification."
According to The New York Times, the firm recently shared fabricated polling results for primary races, which were rejected by major aggregators, as the methodology could not be confirmed. Nevertheless, the numbers spread rapidly across social media.
One poll from the firm showed Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong leading by more than 20 points, which fell in line with other polls, but she ultimately lost her race by one point.
In California, incumbent Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass shared the firm's data on social media, showing her leading her re-election race by 12 points.
While news of the fake polls has raised important discussions about the dangers of relying on low-quality polling and betting markets, some critics believe the firm behind them was simply trolling.
Mia Costa, a government professor at Dartmouth College, told the Times that the project "didn't make sense," as it doesn't appear to measure anything.
"How do you know who was exposed and who wasn't?" Costa added. "This is just wreaking havoc in an election with real stakes and no real interest in understanding the effects of what you are doing."