Story perspectives

Fake Polling Firm Median Strategies Shuts Down After Fabrications

8/21/2026

Center

Median Strategies Fabricates Polls

Median Strategies, a polling firm, announced on August 20 it shut down its website after admitting its polls were fabricated.
Karen Bass’s campaign praised the fabricated Los Angeles poll on X and later issued a statement demanding investigation of bad-faith attempts to influence elections.
Median Strategies said the polls were a short-term social experiment testing how unverified data spreads.
The fabricated Wisconsin poll showed Francesca Hong leading by more than 20 points.

Left

Median Strategies Shut

Median Strategies, a fake polling firm, announced on August 20 it shut down its website after admitting its recent polls were fabricated.
The experiment shows how easily fabricated polls can infiltrate the political information ecosystem, threatening voters and campaign decisions.
Rahil Prakash, a 21-year-old graduate, created the project and built the site using AI.
The Association of Political Consultants condemned effort as deception aimed at voters, press, and campaigns.

Blindspot

The American Association of Political Consultants condemned the fabricated polls as deception aimed at voters, the press, and campaigns, according to the left-leaning source.
Within this story's sources, this condemnation appears mainly in Left-leaning coverage and receives less attention in Center-leaning coverage.

History

Historical Context

In 2016, the Russian Internet Research Agency launched a coordinated disinformation operation that flooded U.S. social media with fabricated polls and false narratives. The IRA created over 3,500 fake accounts, spending roughly $100 million on ads that amplified bogus polling data across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Similarly, the August 20 shutdown of Median Strategies, founded by Rahil Prakash, revealed AI-generated polls that misled Karen Bass’s campaign and the Association of Political Consultants. These episodes underscore how fabricated polling can distort electoral calculations, prompting regulators to consider stricter transparency rules for online political data.

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Median Strategies Fabricates Polls

Median Strategies, a polling firm, announced on August 20 it shut down its website after admitting its polls were fabricated.
Karen Bass’s campaign praised the fabricated Los Angeles poll on X and later issued a statement demanding investigation of bad-faith attempts to influence elections.
Median Strategies said the polls were a short-term social experiment testing how unverified data spreads.
The fabricated Wisconsin poll showed Francesca Hong leading by more than 20 points.

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