Imagine you’re scrolling through social media in the final days before New Zealand’s election, and you see something that makes you pause. Maybe it’s a post claiming Labour leader Chris Hipkins has promised to make Jacinda Ardern the next governor-general. Maybe it’s a story saying Christopher Luxon and the National Party plan to abolish Labour Day. Or perhaps it’s an alarming post that appears to report Hipkins has died. None of these things are true, yet they’re all floating around online, mixed in with genuine news, memes, and campaign posts. If that makes you feel uneasy, you’re not alone. And…

On a cool Saturday morning in New York City, voters lined up outside polling places, waiting for the chance to make their voices heard in the midterm elections. There was something reassuringly familiar about the scene: neighbors nodding at one another, first-time voters clutching sample ballots, older New Yorkers who had done this many times before, all taking part in a ritual that has defined democracy for centuries. That moment of civic engagement, captured in a photograph of early voting, feels solid and real. Yet while these voters moved through the physical world, an invisible and much more chaotic battle…