Tag: election interference

Disinformation, QAnon efforts targeting Latino voters ramp up ahead of presidential election

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Disinformation targeting Latino communities is ramping up ahead of Election Day, when the demographic is expected to play a crucial role in key battleground states. 

Advocacy groups and election security experts alike say material is circulating on social media platforms and online messaging apps that pushes false conspiracies that echo larger disinformation campaigns in English.

The misinformation efforts, some of which reflect the QAnon conspiracy theory, are especially critical in Florida, a crucial swing state where polls show Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is running behind Hillary Clinton’s 2016 support among Latino voters.  Continue reading.

Researchers: Nearly Half Of Accounts Tweeting About Coronavirus Are Likely Bots

Nearly half of the Twitter accounts spreading messages on the social media platform about the coronavirus pandemic are likely bots, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University said Wednesday.

Researchers culled through more than 200 million tweets discussing the virus since January and found that about 45% were sent by accounts that behave more like computerized robots than humans.

It is too early to say conclusively which individuals or groups are behind the bot accounts, but researchers said the tweets appeared aimed at sowing division in America. Continue reading.

Phillips Questions Zuckerberg As House Considers Election Security Package

WASHNGTON, DC – Today, Rep. Dean Phillips (MN-03) questioned Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about online foreign interference in U.S. Elections during a hearing in the House Financial Services Committee. The hearing comes as the House passed the SHIELD Act (Stopping Harmful Interference in Elections for A Lasting Democracy Act), a comprehensive election security package. The SHIELD Act includes Rep. Dean Phillips’s (MN-03) Firewall Act, aimed at preventing foreign interference in U.S. elections by prohibiting foreign nationals from paying for online advertisements created to attack or support federal candidates.

During his questioning, Phillips raised concerns about the ability of foreign entities to purchase political ads on the social media platform. Phillips told Zuckerberg to expect Congressional scrutiny should Facebook allow entities to purchase ads with Facebook’s proposed anonymous crypto-currency, Libra.

SHIELD Act Election Security Package Passes House, Includes Phillips Firewall Act

WASHNGTON, DC – Today, the House of Representatives passed the SHIELD Act (Stopping Harmful Interference in Elections for A Lasting Democracy Act). The comprehensive election security package includes Rep. Dean Phillips’s (MN-03) Firewall Act, which prevents foreign interference in U.S. elections by prohibiting foreign nationals from paying for online advertisements created to attack or support federal candidates.

“There is no question that foreign adversaries interfered in our previous elections – and they’re planning to do it again,” said Phillips.“These threats are urgent, they are real, and they are entirely preventable. It’s time for members of Congress to put politics aside and stand together to protect the sanctity of our elections from those who seek to divide, discourage, and disinform the American electorate.”

In addition to Phillips’s Firewall Act, the SHIELD Act:

  • Includes an enormously popular provision that would require political campaigns, parties, and PACs to report offers of unlawful campaign assistance by a foreign government to the FBI and FEC.
  • Improves transparency of online political advertisements by establishing disclosure rules that guard against foreign interference.
  • Prohibits foreign nationals from participating in decision-making about contributions or expenditures by corporations, PACS, Super PACs, and other entities.
  • Restricts exchange of campaign information between candidates and foreign governments and their agents.
  • Prohibits spreading false information about voting rules.

Phillips spoke at a press conference announcing the SHIELD Act this morning. A video of the press conference is available here.

Rep. Phillips spoke on the House Floor today to urge his colleagues to support the SHIELD Act and Firewall Act.

Click here to watch Phillips’s remarks.

Below are Phillips’s remarks as prepared:

Madam Speaker –

People in small towns and cities in my home state of Minnesota and in neighborhoods all across the nation are being targeted for manipulation.

Foreign governments have found a weakness in our national security. They are using social media platforms to influence Americans with the hope they’ll vote in favor of foreign interests – not American interests.

Democrats and Republicans need to come together – now – today – to do something about it. It is what our founders: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison and others would have demanded!

I am proud to support the SHIELD Act – important legislation that includes my bill, the Firewall Act, to prevent foreign nationals from paying for online political advertisements.

I urge my colleagues to support this historic and necessary package – and help us build a wall, a digital wall, to protect Americans from foreign interference in our elections.

‘The Capabilities Are Still There.’ Why Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower Christopher Wylie Is Still Worried

In March 2018, Christopher Wylie blew the whistle on Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy that worked for the Trump campaign. Cambridge Analytica, the Canadian data scientist revealed, had illegally obtained the Facebook information of 87 million people and used it to build psychological profiles of voters. Using cutting-edge research, Cambridge Analytica — which was funded by the billionaire hedge-fund owner Robert Mercer, and effectively run by Steve Bannon from 2014 onward — spread narratives on social media aiming to ignite a culture war, suppress black voter turnout and exacerbate racist views held by some white voters. (Trump’s campaign staff have denied Cambridge Analytica played a major role in the campaign.)

Wylie’s revelations caused a temporary meltdown in Facebook’s market value and set governments around the world scrambling to more stringently regulate social media, data collection and political campaigning. But, 18 months later and as another U.S. Presidential Election approaches, Wylie says not enough has been done to prevent similar problems. In his new book, Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America, out Oct. 8, Wylie tells the story of his experience coming to realize how the enormous amount of data we now share about ourselves daily on social media could be combined, synthesized and eventually weaponized to shape our thoughts, feelings and even voting habits — all without us noticing.

Wylie spoke to TIME about the dangers of Facebook, his fears for 2020 and his best advice for would-be whistleblowers.

View the complete October 8 article by Billy Perrigo on The Time website here.