The Elephant in the Room: Social Media Companies Need to “Get Out” the Russian Government and Tell Us What They Are Trying To Tell Us
The Senate Intelligence Committee heard testimony on Wednesday from executives from Microsoft, Meta, and Google, who told the committee about protecting US voters from election threats in four years. But the elephant in the room was the pressure campaign social media companies have faced from the right to take a more hands-off approach when it comes to labeling or demoting misinformation.
The hearing, chaired by Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, served largely to impress upon the companies the need for more extensive safeguards against the disinformation campaigns being funded by foreign entities with an eye on influencing US politics.
Warner, a proponent of expanding cooperation between the government and Silicon Valley to root out campaigns by Russia, Iran, and China, among other legally designated rivals, described the recent efforts by Russia as both “effective and cheap.”
The Department of Justice revealed this month that it had seized internet domains believed tied to the Russian government, as well as the Tenet Media indictment. The websites were named after popular media brands like CNN, and were intended to spread favorable content to Russia. For instance, one fake Fox News story stated that squaring off with Russia is too great a risk and that Ukraine has no particular value to the US.
Reply to Warner on Musk’s ‘The Doppelganger’s Report on Artificial Intelligence, Twitter, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg
Warner noted that Musk had refused to send a representative to testify. A spokesperson for Warner told WIRED that X’s former chief of global affairs, Nick Pickles, had previously agreed to appear before the committee; however, he resigned from the company roughly two weeks later. X didn’t give a replacement. (Pickles could not be immediately reached for comment.)
Warner thanked the companies that did appear amicably for their positive role in the recent actions taken by the government. Warner pointed out that the public and government should be aware of the foreign election threats because of recent decisions by Microsoft and Google.
The operation, dubbed “Doppelganger,” allegedly relied on influencers and paid social media advertisements, as well as fake accounts that mimicked US citizens—in some cases with the help of artificial intelligence. According to the private documents obtained by the FBI, the principal director of the operation, a little-known Russian political strategist named Ilya Gambashidzer, stated bluntly that they were expecting fake news every day.
The vice chair of the committee argued on behalf of Americans who hold views similar to the Kremlin’s because they should not be punished. “The question becomes, is that disinformation or is that misinformation, is that an influence operation, because that preexisting view is being amplified?” Decisions by companies to remove the amplified information is “problematic and complicated,” he said, adding that he believes it risks “stigmatiz[ing]” Americans holding those views.
The chair of the committee called in tech companies to discuss the threats they are seeing so far and how they are responding. Warner emphasized that his main concern was with foreign malicious activity, not domestic, in an effort to find common ground with Republicans. He stressed the bipartisan interest in preserving election integrity, pointing to bipartisan funding for election-related upgrades and election-related AI deepfake laws that have passed in both red and blue states.
Platforms like Meta have historically tended to follow the lead of the scientific community and government in these sorts of cases. Some people are making a show of pushing back. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently told House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) While acknowledging that taking down content is the company’s choice, he regretted not being more outspoken about government pressure around covid content. The company did not send anyone to today’s hearing, even though it was invited, because they failed to provide an adequate replacement after they offered one weeks before the hearing. (Warner said TikTok had been another potential participant, but there’d been concerns about timing due to recent oral arguments in its case against the government’s divest-or-ban efforts.)
In a recent Supreme Court case, there was a debate about the line between unconstitutional government encouragement and permissible pressure. According to the Republican attorneys general, the Biden Administration coerced tech platforms to remove speech like covid-19 and led to temporary restrictions on the White House communication with tech platforms.
The Supreme Court decided the AGs didn’t have standing and questioned whether companies were really responding to government pressure, and its decision cleared the path for the government to communicate with tech companies about misinformation and other election threats. Warner told reporters after the hearing that communication between the government and tech companies is already “much better.” He said during the hearing that we are less safe today because many of those independent academic reviewers have been bullied, or chased out of the marketplace.