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BumRushDaShow

(129,029 posts)
Tue Oct 8, 2019, 01:33 PM Oct 2019

Bipartisan Senate report calls for sweeping effort to prevent Russian interference in 2020 election

Source: Washington Post



A bipartisan panel of U.S. senators Tuesday called for sweeping action by Congress, the White House and Silicon Valley to ensure social-media sites aren't used to interfere in the coming presidential election, delivering a sobering assessment about the weaknesses that Russian operatives exploited in the 2016 campaign.

The Senate Intelligence Committee, which has been investigating foreign electoral interference for more than two and a half years, said in blunt language that Russians worked to damage Democrat Hillary Clinton while bolstering Republican Donald Trump -- and made clear that fresh rounds of interference are likely ahead of the 2020 vote.

In response, Democratic and Republican lawmakers urged their peers in Congress to act, exploring the adoption of new regulations that would make political ads more transparent. They also called on the White House and the executive branch to adopt a more forceful, public role, warning Americans about the ways in which dangerous misinformation can spread while creating new teams within the U.S. government to monitor for threats and share intelligence with industry. "The Federal government, civil society, and the private sector, including social media and technology companies, each have an important role to play in deterring and defending against foreign influence operations that target the United States," committee lawmakers said.

The committee has in previous reports and hearings detailed extensive Russian manipulation of Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and other major platforms with the goal of dividing Americans, suppressing African American turnout and helping elect Trump president. But Tuesday's report, the second volume of the committee's final report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, offered the most detailed and robust set of recommendations so far in attempting to bolster the nation's defenses against foreign meddling online -- now a routine tactic for many nations.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/10/08/bipartisan-senate-report-calls-sweeping-effort-prevent-russian-interference-election/



Here is a copy of the report (PDF file) - https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Report_Volume2.pdf
14 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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elleng

(130,914 posts)
1. Senate Intel Concludes Russia Intervened In 2016 To Boost Trump.
Tue Oct 8, 2019, 01:44 PM
Oct 2019

'The Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that the Russian government used social media in the 2016 election to help President Trump secure victory and hurt the Hillary Clinton campaign, the panel said in an 85-page report released on Tuesday.'>>>

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/read-senate-intel-concludes-russia-intervened-in-2016-to-boost-trump?

abqtommy

(14,118 posts)
2. This is good as far as it goes but social media is only one area that can be exploited to influence
Tue Oct 8, 2019, 01:57 PM
Oct 2019

election outcome. There's dirty tricks like gerrymandering and removing voters from registration lists,
hacking of voting machines and systems, "losing" or not counting ballots, changing the status of polling locations and intimidating voters with "observers". It'll take a lot of work to secure our voting process.

BumRushDaShow

(129,029 posts)
4. I think the difference between the social media influence
Tue Oct 8, 2019, 02:16 PM
Oct 2019

and the issues you mention is that the "physical" securing of the election systems (or "hardening" as they sometimes term it) is something that has been a chronic problem - literally for as long as "voting" has been available around the world - thousands of years.

But in the case of the social media, that is more a modern form of "propaganda" (electronic) versus the newspapers/flyers and roaming bands of of speakers (in meetings, on radio/television/film, etc).

What makes it more insidious however, is that thanks to the internet, the propaganda can reach far and wide around the world vs the old days of dropping flyers from a plane or using a high-power transmitter to broadcast to other countries!

bucolic_frolic

(43,167 posts)
5. Why wait for GOP to save us? Just post everywhere
Tue Oct 8, 2019, 04:10 PM
Oct 2019

Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds. Russians are warping our minds.

bucolic_frolic

(43,167 posts)
7. I'm not joking!
Tue Oct 8, 2019, 04:32 PM
Oct 2019

It's a deterrent! If every American knows, we do gain SOMETHING!

But glad you were amused!

BumRushDaShow

(129,029 posts)
8. Should be included as banners attached to planes flying over State Fairs
Tue Oct 8, 2019, 04:39 PM
Oct 2019

and beamed onto the sides of buildings everywhere! :

bucolic_frolic

(43,167 posts)
9. Now you got me laughing!
Tue Oct 8, 2019, 04:48 PM
Oct 2019

Could a small citizens group drowning the internet with such a message overcome all the high paid ads, consultants, crooks, liars, election chiefs and thiefs, propaganda?

Are Americans ready for such innoculation against cheaters and subterfuge? It's like something out of Rocky & Bullwinkle's Fractured Fairy Tales.

Could it work? A team of a few bright people on here should kick it around the block a few times. I'm now curious.

Lord knows we've been reading Benghazi! Benghazi! Benghazi! Her emails, her emails, her emails long enough

BumRushDaShow

(129,029 posts)
10. I think that is why the bot farms targeted social media
Tue Oct 8, 2019, 05:04 PM
Oct 2019

as a way to amplify the "traditional" ads and talk radio and other RW propaganda.

Maybe "old school" is a good alternative. Funny but it made me think of Shakespeare and how so much of what he wrote being "political" in the form of his plays.

ancianita

(36,058 posts)
11. Barr's preach-to-the-choir "summit today," NO tech experts allowed," was to keep that FB back door
Tue Oct 8, 2019, 05:19 PM
Oct 2019

the same one used by the Russians to post anti-Hillary fake groups, fake rallies and fake accounts by the millions. The same back door that got Zuckerberg yelled at by customers and Congress for a couple of months after the election.

But NO, Barr and Chris Wray don't want the end-to-end encryption that Zuckerberg now plans. If this is not leaving election influence wide open to the Russians, AGAIN, I don't know what is, except for filling all fifty states with offline, remote hackable voting machines, remote hackable servers, and hacked voter rolls.

Quote from above: " delivering a sobering assessment about the weaknesses that Russian operatives exploited in the 2016 campaign... "The Federal government, civil society, and the private sector, including social media and technology companies, each have an important role to play in deterring and defending against foreign influence operations that target the United States," committee lawmakers said."

Barr, Homeland and the whole administration don't care. "Leave that back door open!" they say.

I hope Zuckerberg does shuts it. Homeland and the FBI are being lazy, wanting FB to do their law enforcement for them at the expense of customer privacy.

Enabling content moderation for end-to-end encrypted messaging is a different problem from enabling law enforcement access to message content....

Yes, encryption makes it harder for the police to get in and see certain things, but that's by design. We live in a country with the 4th Amendment, in which we believe that it should be difficult for law enforcement to snoop deeply into our lives
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20191007/00022343132/doj-is-conflating-content-moderation-debate-with-encryption-debate-dont-let-them.shtml?fbclid=IwAR0x1oPq8flehbroPIJ0KlpVVVFMeI9PTalR4pMnYug9t93nf21E5Y7mNw8

ancianita

(36,058 posts)
13. Yes, I remember, sort of. It keeps raising its ugly head. But guv has to know that we're watching.
Tue Oct 8, 2019, 05:49 PM
Oct 2019

Right?

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