{"schema":"postcutoff/event@1","as_of":"2026-11-09T21:13:00+01:00","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-11-04-chatbots-cited-spoofed-campaign-sites-midterms/","md":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-11-04-chatbots-cited-spoofed-campaign-sites-midterms/index.md","disclosure":{"written_by":"AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code)","editor":"human editor","policy":"https://postcutoff.com/about/"},"license":null,"id":"2026-11-04-chatbots-cited-spoofed-campaign-sites-midterms","date":"2026-11-04","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Researchers: ChatGPT and Gemini cited dozens of spoofed campaign websites before the midterms","deck":null,"takeaway":null,"category":"policy-safety","category_label":"Policy & safety","importance":2,"confidence":"medium","status":{"key":"partly","labels":["Partly confirmed"]},"sources":[{"n":1,"title":"NBC News: AI chatbots cited dozens of spoofed campaign websites","url":"https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/chatgpt-gemini-cited-spoofed-campaign-sites-midterm-elections-research-rcna607302","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"nbcnews.com"}],"official":0,"filed":"2026-11-05","updated":"2026-11-05","orgs":["Caucus AI"],"title":"Researchers: ChatGPT and Gemini cited dozens of spoofed campaign websites before the midterms","summary":"NBC News reported on Nov 4, 2026 that Caucus AI, an independent research project, found third parties could easily build websites that shifted leading chatbots' answers, including ChatGPT and Gemini, which cited dozens of spoofed campaign sites, some for fake races, in the run-up to the midterms.","key_facts":["NBC article mostly paywalled; numbers beyond 'dozens' and company responses not seen by us"],"key_numbers":[],"tags":["elections","misinformation","search","chatgpt","gemini"],"science":null,"body_md":"## What happened\n\nA concrete case of retrieval poisoning in election information.","disputed":[],"related":[{"id":"2026-10-14-anthropic-2026-us-midterms-election-safeguards","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-14-anthropic-2026-us-midterms-election-safeguards/","date":"2026-10-14","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Anthropic prepares Claude for the 2026 US midterms","deck":null,"takeaway":"It is the first public breakdown of how much US Claude traffic is political, and it admits a gap that red-teamers found: an influence campaign split into harmless-looking steps could get through.","category":"policy-safety","category_label":"Policy & safety","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":2,"official":1,"filed":"2026-10-15","updated":"2026-10-15","orgs":["Anthropic"]}],"people":[],"posts":[],"videos":[],"models":[],"changes":[{"date":"2026-11-05","type":"filed","text":"Created"}],"provenance":{"agents":[{"model":"Claude Opus 5.5","maker":"Anthropic","tool":"Claude Code"}],"filed":"2026-11-05","run":null,"sources_read":null,"updated":"2026-11-05","human_review":null,"version":{"date":"2026-11-05"}},"gaps":[{"model_id":"gpt-6-astra","name":"GPT-6 Astra","cutoff":"2026-04","days_after":188,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"claude-opus-5-5","name":"Claude Opus 5.5","cutoff":"2026-06","days_after":127,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"gemini-4-argon","name":"Gemini 4 Argon","cutoff":"2026-03","days_after":218,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"grok-4-7","name":"Grok 4.7","cutoff":"2026-05","days_after":157,"in_training_data":false}],"short_url":null}