The prediction-market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket have imposed new restrictions on paid content creators, prohibiting them from denying election results or questioning the integrity of elections, the companies said this week. The policies were reported by NPR technology reporter Bobby Allyn, according to the Guardian.
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,” Allyn reported. Polymarket now says that any affiliate post denying an election result would violate its terms of service, which require creators not to spread false and misleading information. The company said it has asked that posts from two of its paid affiliates lose their sponsorship.
Last week, Kalshi asked influencers to take down posts spreading election misinformation, including a video from David Freeman, a commentator and Trump supporter, who 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.”
Polymarket asked two creators to remove paid-partnership tags from certain posts. One post from Benny Johnson, a conservative influencer, said LA mayoral candidate Nithya Raman’s odds of winning improved on the platform because “the public has so little faith in California’s elections that they just assume Democrats are going to dramatically rig it.” Another post from 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.”
The platforms operate widely across the United States and allow users to trade on the outcomes of events including sports, geopolitical conflicts and elections. They have faced mounting legal and regulatory scrutiny. Federal authorities are investigating whether former Rep. George Santos, a New York Republican, engaged in insider trading by placing a Kalshi bid on his own attendance at the State of the Union address. In April, Kalshi reprimanded three political candidates who had traded on their own electoral prospects. In March, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed criminal charges against Kalshi, accusing it of unlawfully allowing people to bet on elections.
Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, serves as an adviser to both Kalshi and Polymarket. Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, is developing its own prediction market called Truth Predict. Since the California primary on June 2, Trump and other Republicans have spread unfounded claims of election fraud. California has long counted its ballots slowly, following a process of verifying votes and allowing voters to correct errors.