a day late and a dollar short
are we making progress fighting disinformation?
Hello there! Summer is over, and here I am, sheepishly crawling back into your inbox. I had a good excuse for being away — I was finishing my manuscript! — but I still feel guilty about my long absence.
As I was writing the conclusion to my book, cannibalizing essays and papers I’ve written over the past three years, a familiar sense of dismay about how little the couter-disinformation space has changed over the past three years washed over me. The topics I was researching and solutions I was advocating for then are the same ones I’m focused on now.
American political elites are somehow still arguing about whether Russian information operations had any impact on our political discourse. French President Emmanuel Macron, once so critical of Russia for spreading “serious falsehoods” to which he would “never give in” seems to have done just that, and is lobbying for Moscow’s reintroduction into the G7. Social media companies continue to play their game of Whack-a-Troll, deleting inauthentic accounts under a cloud of opacity, rarely giving users concrete data about just how widespread the disinformation problem is. Facebook is finally investing in journalism with its “news tab” feature, but it is partnering with big name outlets, not smaller, independent organizations for whom the $2 million syndication fee the social media giant will pay would be a seismic injection of funds. Google is adjusting its search algorithm to prioritize original reporting (a suggestion that has been given to the company for years, as many journalists were quick to point out).
More worrisome, though, is the growing political polarization that grips leaves us vulnerable for continued manipulation. As I told the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations in testimony this summer, “Where we ought to be setting the rules of engagement, the tone, and the moral compass in responding to Russia’s information war, the United States has been a tardy, timid, or tertiary player, with much of our public servants’ good work on this issue stymied by domestic politicization.” It extends beyond our borders, too; at a discussion with journalists and cybersecurity professionals visiting Washington on the International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) last week, participants from across the former communist space lamented this polarization, and worried that it might be an insurmountable challenge. Politicians lead and perpetuate this polarization, making the counter disinformation battleground more dangerous and the fight itself much more difficult to win.
The collective ‘we’ — the West, and democracy as we know it — needs more politicians campaigning not only for their reelection, but for a return to deliberative democratic discourse. This is going to be a focus of my upcoming work at the Wilson Center, where I’ve begun a new appointment as a Fellow in the Science and Technology Innovation Program’s “Defending Disinformation Series.” We kicked off the series last month with a productive discussion that included academics, practitioners, tech reps, and media; watch it here. I argue for a more formalized version of this cross-sector approach to countering disinformation in a new paper for the George Washington University’s Program on Extremism.
Looking forward to appearing more regularly in your inbox. Thanks for sticking with me during my absence!