As Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump ramp up their presidential campaigns, so have their social media directors.

Social media has changed the landscape of elections, with over half of Americans at least sometimes getting their news from social media, according to the Pew Research Center. However, experts have said social media – including generative artificial intelligence – can lead to the spread of election misinformation.

Ramesh Srinivasan, a professor of information studies, said technology is indispensable for campaigns, given the reality that most people now access information online.

“It would be absolutely moronic if any major politician did not directly engage with social media in a highly strategic way,” he said.

Srinivasan added that generative AI systems may also play a role in this election. Notably, Trump’s campaign recently used generative AI to post a fabricated photo of Taylor Swift endorsing him for president.

Srinivasan said he believes all AI-generated content should contain a watermark indicating its origins.

“(AI) can fabricate identities and voices and faces and even create new faces that have never existed,” he said. “People should know what is or what is not being created or modified in a heavy way by an AI system.”

Yalda Uhls, executive director of the Center for Scholars and Storytellers at UCLA – which researches youth and media creation – and one of Harris’ childhood friends, said TikTok could serve a positive role in spreading information to young people about the election because the platform has so many young users.

However, she added that the app, like all social media platforms, has the possibility of spreading misinformation. Uhls also said that like news outlets, social media companies now have a responsibility to filter out misinformation.

Both candidates have attempted to use social media to their advantage, Srinivasan said, adding that Trump is adept at using it to grab people’s attention – particularly through controversy, divisive rhetoric and nicknames. This strategy has proven successful in garnering attention toward the Trump campaign, as provocative posts often go viral, he said.

“That strategy unfortunately works because what drives attention on social media platforms is what generates the most virality,” he said. “What you see the most often tends toward that which is most fringy, conspiratorial or edgy. That’s designed to provoke an emotional response.”

Many posts that go viral on social media are taken out of context, Srinivasan said. An example of this, he added, is Harris’ viral “coconut tree” meme – a video in which she seemingly stops at a random point in her speech to ask the audience, “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?”

People on the internet took this video out of context, Srinivasan said, as Harris was attempting to explain that young people are products of the environments around them. From there, creators on the internet begin to generate different versions of the meme, such as remixes and edits – allowing it to take fresh new forms that kept it alive, he added.

Uhls said she believes the Harris campaign’s embrace of Generation Z rhetoric – including “coconut tree” and “BRAT” memes – will increase teenagers’ engagement in politics. Harris has also connected with young people by appearing on podcasts such as “Call Her Daddy,” which is targeted toward young women, said Atlas Burrus, research manager for the Center for Storytellers and Scholars.

“The fact that Kamala is using the teens’ … language – the modern language that young people use to communicate – in a way that hopefully feels authentic might get them excited about politics again,” Uhls said.

A study recently conducted by the Center for Scholars and Storytellers found that young people who pay attention to the news are more likely to vote for Harris, Uhls said. The study also found that Gen Z voters are less likely to pay attention to the fact that Harris is mixed-race or a woman and more likely to focus on her policy issues, she added.

“If you want to impact who’s going to be president, it’s really critical to have you guys (teenagers) vote – because you’re the future,” she said.