Kalshi and Polymarket prohibit affiliates from spreading election misinformation

Popular online prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket will prohibit paid creators and affiliates from denying election results, NPR reports, as online creators spread misinformation about California’s election.

In a social media post, Bobby Allyn, NPR technology reporter, reports: “Kalshi now says it prohibits paid creators from calling into question the integrity or accuracy of an election, legal ruling or official determination in connection with an election.

“Polymarket now says any affiliate post denying an election result would violate their terms of service stipulating that creators do not spread false and misleading information,” he added. “The company says it has asked that posts from two of its paid affiliates lose its sponsorship.”

Last week, Kalshi asked influencers paid to promote the site to take down posts spreading election misinformation, including a video from commentator David Freeman where the Trump supporter said: “Let’s talk about California for a second. You know they’re cheating. I know they’re cheating. You know they’re cheating. We all know they’re cheating.”

Meanwhile, Polymarket asked two creators to remove paid-partnership tags from certain posts, including one where Benny Johnson, a conservative influencer, said LA mayoral candidate Nithya Raman’s odds of winning improved on the site because “the public has so little faith in California’s elections that they just assume Democrats are going to dramatically rig it”.

In another post labeled as a paid partnership with Polymarket, Kangmin Lee, a rightwing streamer, said: “Notice how the mail-in ballots that come in last second always end up voting Democrat. Totally a coincidence, nothing to see here.”

Prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket allow users to “trade” on the outcomes of any event, from sports games to geopolitical conflicts to elections. Although the markets have been banned in some countries, such as Spain, under gambling laws, the platforms operate widely across the US, including in states where gambling banned.