Fight election disinformation

How Warren would fight election disinformation

Warren wants to “create civil and criminal penalties for knowingly disseminating false information about when and how to vote in U.S. elections.

By CRISTIANO LIMA

Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday unveiled a plan to combat the spread of election-related disinformation, which proposes criminal and civil penalties for online voter suppression efforts and urges social media companies and campaigns to bolster their policies against deception.

What would the plan do?

The plan includes three parts, outlining what 2020 presidential campaigns and tech companies should do and the steps a Warren administration would take to limit the spread of false and misleading information aimed at deceiving voters.

Warren (D-Mass.) pledged that her campaign “will not knowingly use or spread false or manipulated information, including false or manipulated news reports or doctored images, audio, and videos on social media.” And she called on other campaigns to make the same commitments.

The plan calls on major platforms including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to label any state-controlled organizations on their platforms, set clear punishments for accounts that “attempt to interfere with voting,” take “meaningful steps” to alert users about disinformation campaigns and take steps to increase transparency around their data and algorithms.

Cyber threats

The plan includes three parts, outlining what 2020 presidential campaigns and tech companies should do to limit the spread of false and misleading information aimed at deceiving voters. | John Locher, File/AP Photo

As president, Warren said she would push to “create civil and criminal penalties for knowingly disseminating false information about when and how to vote in U.S. elections” and to set up rules so that platforms can share data about disinformation campaigns with one another and the government “while respecting individuals’ privacy.”

Warren also pledged to restore the cybersecurity coordinator position at the National Security Council that the White House eliminated in 2018.

How would the plan work?

Warren’s proposal is in large part a pressure campaign aimed at getting other campaigns and social media companies to dial up their efforts to curb disinformation — while also offering a glimpse at her legislative agenda on the issue.

In the proposal, the senator calls on her 2020 rivals to make the same pledge to not knowingly share false information.

“I’m sending a clear message to anyone associated with the Warren campaign: I will not tolerate the use of false information or false accounts to attack my opponents, promote my campaign, or undermine our elections,” she said. “And I urge my fellow candidates to do the same.”

Warren also urges Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and the leaders of other top digital platforms to take aggressive steps to crack down on voter suppression efforts.

“The safety of our democracy is more important than shareholder dividends and CEO salaries, and we need tech companies to behave accordingly,” she said. “That’s why I’m calling on them to take real steps right now to fight disinformation.”

But Warren does outline concrete steps she would take as president to mitigate the threat of false information, including pushing for legislation to penalize individuals launching voter suppression efforts online and to establish new rules around information and data sharing between tech companies.

Warren also floats diplomatic and foreign policy actions her administration would take, saying she would convene “a summit of countries to enhance information sharing and coordinate policy responses to disinformation” and consider “additional sanctions against countries that engage in election interference through disinformation.”

How does her plan stack up?

Warren is not the first 2020 candidate to make a vow not to share disinformation. Former Vice President Joe Biden last June made a similar pledge, swearing off the use of deepfake videos, phony social media accounts and bots to attack opponents.

And an array of Democratic candidates have called on social media companies to bolster their policies against election-related disinformation. But the specific steps that Warren is urging platforms to take mark some of the most concrete suggestions offered by a candidate to date.

Warren’s proposal notably does not call for rolling back social media companies’ legal protections over user-generated content, however, an idea increasingly floated by 2020 Democratic contenders.

In an interview published earlier this month, Biden called for the online industry’s liability shield to be “immediately” revoked, citing concerns over the spread of election disinformation. The protections, afforded under Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, shield digital services firms from lawsuits over their users' posts and over good faith efforts to remove harmful material.