Indictment shows how Russians conspired to disrupt U.S. politics — but not how to stop them next time

Efforts to reconstruct the Russian conspiracy to sway 2016’s presidential election benefited from the digital trails left behind whenever people travel, make payments or communicate using common technology such as Facebook or Gmail. Such breadcrumbs provided plentiful evidence for Friday’s indictment by the special counsel of the Internet Research Agency and 13 Russian associates.

But even as the disinformation campaign from two years ago finally came into focus, it was far from clear how to prevent future bids to distort American politics.

U.S. intelligence agencies warned this week that the federal government remains ill equipped to combat Russian disinformation even as crucial midterm congressional elections loom this fall. And technology companies, while cooperating with federal investigators, acknowledge that they still struggle to detect and thwart foreign propaganda without impinging on the free-speech rights of Americans.

One expert who has repeatedly warned Congress about these problems, former FBI agent Clinton Watts, said, “There’s no one in charge of this. No one is tasked to do this. . . . The FBI doesn’t do thought policing on social media in advance. It’s not going to be able to detect this in advance.”

Some technology companies have been reluctant to submit to greater government scrutiny or hinder the ability of users to speak anonymously and, if they so desire, with the help of automation tools that can dramatically amplify certain voices. But scrutiny of the power of their platforms — and how the Russians used them — has forced the companies into discussions with lawmakers and regulators.

The consequences of these business choices were made apparent again in recent days, as a dashboard monitoring Russian disinformation campaigns over Twitter detected a surge of conversation related to Wednesday’s school shooting in Florida, along with apparent efforts to further polarize the online debate around gun control.

The same dashboard — Hamilton 68, hosted by the Alliance for Securing Democracy in Washington — recorded sustained Russian efforts in January to push the “#ReleaseTheMemo” online campaign. It sought the publication, ultimately successfully, of a Republican memo alleging misdeeds by the FBI in conducting surveillance of a Trump campaign associate.

Source: Washingtonpost News