Submitted 11 months ago by silence7@slrpnk.net to technology@lemmy.world
The federal government is no longer warning Meta about foreign influence campaigns, a shift that comes amid a legal campaign against the Biden administration’s communication with tech platforms
In practice this us going to mean a lot more Russian disinformation campaigns to set Americans against each other and influence the upcoming election
Yeah no shit. The republicans gain in this scenario.
Ben Nimmo, chief of global threat intelligence for Meta, said government officials stopped communicating foreign election interference threats to the company in July.
That month, a federal judge limited the Biden administration’s communications with tech platforms in response to a lawsuit alleging such coordination ran afoul of the First Amendment by encouraging companies to remove falsehoods about covid-19 and the 2020 election. The decision included a specific exemption to allow the government to continue to communicate with the companies about national security threats, specifically foreign interference in elections. The case, Missouri v. Biden, is now before the U.S. Supreme Court, which has paused lower court restrictions while it reviews the matter. … The federal judge’s July 4 ruling prohibited key agencies — including the State Department, the FBI and DHS — from urging companies to remove “protected free speech” from the platforms. However, Trump-appointed Judge Terry A. Doughty appeared to acknowledge concerns the decision could dismantle election integrity initiatives, specifying the restrictions did not apply to warning companies of national security threats or foreign attempts to influence elections. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling removed some of the restrictions, including communication with the State Department.
I can appreciate the administration is “treading cautiously,” but the rulings specify that the restrictions don’t apply to foreign attempts to influence elections.
Why should they waste resources on that, if meta does not react anyway?
There is some history of limiting the reach of actual national government sponsored influence campaigns like this. It hasn’t been perfect, but it hasn’t been zero either.
qooqie@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Honest question to republicans how does this not seem sus as fuck for a party to do this?
_haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Remember when a shitload of republicans all suddenly went to Russia to kiss Putin’s ring?
Not suspicious at all!
kool_newt@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I think about this often, thanks for bringing it up.
Diplomjodler@feddit.de 11 months ago
They don’t care because their voters don’t care. At this point they don’t have any reputation to lose and everybody who votes for them knows exactly what they are.
EatYouWell@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Because they only care about hurting other people. It doesn’t matter if they get hurt too, as long as the other team gets hurt.