Thread by @MarkWarner

The Senate Intelligence Committee just released its report on Russia’s use of social media during the 2016 election. You can read the whole thing for yourself, but here are the important takeaways and recommendations:
warner.senate.gov/public/index.c…

In 2016, Russia took advantage of our openness and innovation, exploiting American-bred social media platforms to spread disinformation, divide the public, and undermine our democracy.

The Internet Research Agency (IRA)'s targeting of the 2016 election was intended to help Trump and hurt Clinton, but it was part of a much broader, sophisticated, and *ongoing* information warfare campaign designed to sow discord in American politics and society.

Importantly, the Committee found the Internet Research Agency specifically targeted African-Americans more than any other group or demographic.

Russians engaged with unwitting Americans to further their reach beyond the digital realm and into real-world activities. For example, IRA operatives targeting African-Americans convinced individuals to sign petitions, share personal information, and teach self-defense courses.

I cannot stress this enough: the Committee found that Russia’s efforts continue to this day. In fact, we found that this activity increased, rather than decreased, after Election Day 2016.

Now, with the 2020 elections on the horizon, there’s no doubt that bad actors will continue to try to weaponize the scale and reach of social media platforms to erode public confidence and foster chaos.

The Russian playbook is out in the open for other foreign and domestic adversaries to expand upon – and their techniques will only get more sophisticated. The question is, what are we going to do about it?

As was made clear in 2016, we cannot expect social media companies to take adequate precautions on their own. Congress must step up and establish guardrails to protect the integrity of our democracy.

Here’s what the Committee recommends on a bipartisan basis:

At a minimum, we need to demand transparency around social media to prevent our adversaries from hiding in its shadows. That includes guaranteeing that companies are identifying inauthentic user accounts and pages, and appropriately handling defamatory or synthetic content.

More fundamentally, we need to give Americans more control over their data and how it’s used, and make sure that they know who’s really bankrolling the political ads coming across their screens.

And because information warfare campaigns are waged across a variety of platforms, we also need to encourage greater communication and information sharing between individual companies, government authorities, and law enforcement.

The Committee also recommends the Executive Branch publicly reinforce the danger of attempted foreign interference in the 2020 election by setting up an interagency task force that can coordinate the federal government’s response to this threat.

Finally, the Committee recommends candidates, campaigns, the media, and other public figures scrutinize sourcing before sharing or promoting new content within their social media networks.

Bottom line: it is Congress’s responsibility to listen to the warnings of our Intelligence Community and take steps to prevent future attacks from being waged on our own social media platforms. This report provides a roadmap for how we do that going forward.