close
close

Association-anemone

Bite-sized brilliance in every update

    • Frustration is mounting as the federal agency struggles to combat election lies spread by Americans
    asane

    Frustration is mounting as the federal agency struggles to combat election lies spread by Americans

    Online Niel Posted on



    CNN
    —

    The federal agency tasked with protecting the nation’s election systems has backed away from key work it did to counter fake and viral voting information in the 2020 election, including rejecting or ignoring several domestic and foreign policy proposals to combat disinformation, many sources are known. with the matter said CNN.

    The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity Agency, or CISA, is charged with protecting election infrastructure from physical and cyber attacks, a task that has grown in importance since Russian intelligence agents. made an extensive effort to influence the 2016 election.

    While CISA has actively called out foreign disinformation efforts this year, it has been less active in combating domestic election disinformation, according to interviews with election officials, an analysis of public records and federal government sources.

    Agency officials are no longer broadcasting viral online hoaxes flagged by election officials in both parties on social media platforms, as they did in 2020, following a lawsuit by Republican attorneys general that accused the agency of censorship.

    A webpage that CISA has been aggressively maintaining to debunk viral 2020 election rumors has been slightly updated. Some domestic proposals to support election officials’ efforts to combat disinformation have made little progress. And one of the agency’s top experts on election disinformation has been sidelined and underutilized by the agency, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

    CISA Director Jen Easterly emphasized in public remarks that it is not the agency’s job to police speech on social media platforms.

    US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency Director Jen Easterly in an interview in Washington, DC on October 2.

    The agency advised election officials how to communicate clearly with voters and prepare for security incidents. Easterly has also used his X social media account to expose facts about the voting process and has repeatedly gone on national television to discuss the security of the electoral process.

    But inside CISA, sources told CNN there is frustration that the agency hasn’t done more to help election officials counter lies that can inspire violent threats against those officials.

    Fear of appearing partisan or infringing on free speech has hampered the agency’s approach to election-related hoaxes that Americans freely share, the sources said.

    In late September, Senator Mark Warner, the powerful chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent Easterly a severe letter imploring her to do more to combat disinformation ahead of the election.

    “I strongly urge you to use every tool at your disposal” to support state and local election officials in the face of an “unprecedented increase in targeted disinformation campaigns,” the Virginia Democrat wrote.

    CNN has requested comment from CISA on its response to the letter.

    Some from the electoral community they would also like CISA to do more to combat counterfeiting.

    “I would like to see more of a concerted effort from CISA on internal intelligence affecting the election infrastructure,” an executive at a voting equipment company, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, told CNN. Voting providers have faced violent threats over false claims that their machines rigged the 2020 election.

    The executive recently pointed out viral lies that voting machines reversed votes in several states. What if a group of Americans spread those lies on a national scale and created chaos?

    “If this happens, if CISA is really focused on foreign malign influence, who will fight against a coordinated effort?” asked the executive.

    CNN has requested comment from CISA on its response to the recent spate of unsubstantiated voting machine claims.

    Four years after the 2020 election, when false claims of voter fraud fueled a violent effort to overturn the election, the information environment surrounding the election has become more chaotic.

    Misinformation continues to be spread online. But starting in 2021, under pressure from Republican lawmakers, the social media industry pivoted from many of the commitments, policies and instruments it once embraced to help protect the peaceful transfer of democratic power.

    After the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, platforms including Meta, Twitter and YouTube suspended thousands of accounts who spread electoral lies and deleted posts glorifying the attack.

    Under the ownership of billionaire Elon Musk, Twitter, now X, has appeared as one of the biggest sources of election conspiracy theories.

    Electoral officials in the fighting states they tried to convey accurate information to Musk in hopes that he would stop spreading conspiracy theories about the vote, to no avail.

    There is acute concern among some senior US officials that combination of false information and violent rhetoric that complicated the federal response to Hurricane Helene in September could emerge in a much stronger way on or after Election Day.

    “It worried a lot of us,” a US official told CNN.

    Easterly and her top election security adviser, Cait Conley, traveled the country to provide support, security advice and training to election officials from both parties. They point out that state and local election officials are the best sources for accurate information. CISA advised states to create their own websites to disinformation disinformation.

    CISA is one of multiple federal agencies involved in election security. The FBI investigates violent threats against election officials, while the Election Assistance Commission certifies voting equipment and educates voters about the process.

    Directly countering false election narratives online and more consistently and forcefully promoting accurate voting information are within CISA’s purview, election officials and experts say. And CISA can do so without violating the First Amendment, they say.

    “I think it’s valuable for multiple levels of government to say, ‘This is fake,'” said a top state election official. “It’s a different messenger with a different microphone” who can question the American public, the election official said.

    <p>A spin-off of Russia’s infamous “Troll Factory,” which tried to undermine the 2016 US election, is now running a disinformation campaign targeting this year’s election. CNN’s Alex Marquardt reports.</p> <p>” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=”this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)” onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1080″ width=”1920 “/></picture> </div> </div></div> </p></div> </div> <div class=

    Russian disinformation network targets US election, new analysis shows

    Not everyone agrees. Some election officials interviewed by CNN were skeptical of the federal government’s ability to debunk election lies that are part of a broader rise in misinformation in America.

    “This is a larger conversation than election administration,” said Stephen Richer, a top Republican election official in Arizona’s Maricopa County who has faced violent threats for saying the 2020 election was safe. “I tend to think that electoral administration and democracy are just a proxy war for a larger struggle over objective truth.”

    In an interview with CNN, Conley praised CISA’s efforts to protect election officials from violence fueled by misinformation, in part by increasing physical security resources for those officials.

    “Since January 2023, we have conducted nearly 1,200 physical security assessments of polling stations,” she said.

    In many ways, CISA has increased its election security efforts since 2020. The agency now has a team of former election officials providing physical and cyber security services to election offices across the country. CISA, the FBI and US intelligence agencies quickly debunked fake voting videos spread by Russian operatives on X over the past month.

    “It’s irresponsible when domestic actors amplify these narratives,” Conley told CNN. “We are literally playing into the hands of our opponents.”

    But with violent threats facing election officials across the country, many in the community are calling for a stronger response from all segments of society to combat disinformation.

    “The defenders and protectors of our democracy have to become much more aggressive, much more assertive,” Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, told CNN, referring to both federal agencies and media outlets.

    “It deserves to be protected and it deserves to be vigorously protected,” he said. “And if people are hurt because you call them liars, let them prove their lie is true in court.”

    Online Niel
    View all posts

    You Might Also Like