The Good, the Bad and the Funny of the Senate Hearing on Election Threats
© AP Photo / Stefani Reynolds
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On Wednesday, the US Senate Intelligence Committee called tech leaders to testify about “foreign threats to elections in 2024.” The committee predictably focused on Russia, China and Iran, as well as the threat posed by AI.
The Good
A few Republican senators spoke out against censorship of dissenting voices, albeit without pushing back on the idea that freedom of speech belongs exclusively to Americans.
Cmte. Vice Chair Marco Rubio (R-FL) brought up the Hunter Biden laptop story as evidence of when government and tech censorship can go wrong.
“There was a concerted effort… to silence a media outlet in the United States for something that turned out not to be Russian disinformation,” the Senator lamented, also bringing up the censorship of the COVID lab leak origin theory.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AZ) echoed those statements and noted that it was far more influential than anything Russia, China or Iran had been accused of.
“There are a lot of threats that our adversaries could pose to us and our elections. I just don’t think that memes and YouTube videos are among the top. Especially when we have the example of election interference here in America that was so egregious. Some of your companies’ efforts, in collusion with Joe Biden’s campaign, led by the current Secretary of State to suppress the factual reporting about Hunter Biden’s laptop.”
“Again, this is domestic information operations if you’d like to say. Far more influence on our elections than memes or YouTube videos or articles that Russian intelligence agents or Chinese intelligence agents posted.”
Cotton also defended political humor and satire, noting that the recently signed California anti-deepfake law would target deep fakes of former US President Donald Trump saving ducks and geese. “It’s fine. People laugh at them. Satire and political humor are as old as our country.”
The Bad
Anti-Russian, Chinese and Iranian sentiments were high in the hearing, as was the desire to quiet speech from anyone originating from those countries.
Cmte. Chair Mark Warner (D-VA) complained that Meta* and Google have allegedly allowed their ad tools to be used by sanctioned entities (read: companies in China, Russia and Iran). He also slammed Elon Musk for not cooperating with their efforts to fight “disinformation.”
“I think it’s a real shame that in the previous investigations, Twitter was a very collaborative entity. Under X they are absent and some of the most egregious activity is taking place,” Warner said, later thanking the Meta* president of global affairs for the axing of Russian sites (see: Sputnik and RT) from the platform.
He also accused Iran of infiltrating US protests against Israeli actions in Gaza.
“And we’ve seen… efforts to infiltrate American protests over the conflict in Gaza by Iranian influence operatives to seek to sow division and in many cases degenerate former President Trump,” Warner said without presenting evidence.
Finally, Warner thanked Meta President of Global Affairs for removing Russian sites (including Sputnik and RT) from the platform.
“I want to thank Meta, I hope that our committee’s interest in this subject helped move you yesterday when you guys decided to take down RT and related Russian influence operations,” he said.
Finally, Meta* President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg called for cooperation with countries across the West, potentially exporting the rules of the EU and US across the supposedly "democratic world."
"I would also suggest cooperations between different jurisdictions across the democratic world globally is important, particularly between the United States, Europe, India and so on," Clegg argued. "I think one of the greatest risks is a fragmentation of different regulatory approaches around the world for technologies that by definition are borderless."
17 September, 10:11 GMT
The UK and EU have censorship laws far in advance of the US. In August, a UK man was jailed for 20 months over a Facebook post.
The Funny
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine., speaks on the Senate floor about her vote on Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kananaugh, Friday, Oct. 5, 2018 in the Capitol in Washington. Sen Shelly Capito, R-W.Va., sits rear left and Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., sits right. (Senate TV via AP)
© AP Photo / Senate TV
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) accused China of using the Sister Cities program to sow discord.
“China is attempting to build relations with state and local officials. We see the sister cities programs, we see the Confucius Institutes and educational institutions, so how are your platforms trying to help safeguard the down-ballot races?” she asked.
The Sister Cities program was created in 1956 by US President Dwight Eisenhower to foster “bonds between people from different communities around the world.” More than 140 countries and 300 communities participate in the program.
Meanwhile, after showcasing fake sites meant to mimic The Washington Post and Fox News, Warner implied Americans are too brainless to read URLs.
“I don’t know… how a normal American consumer, even a relatively sophisticated one, would have the expertise to read the URL that closely when everything else looks so closely like Fox or Washington Post,” he said.
Fake websites are not new and have likely existed for nearly as long as the World Wide Web itself. Warner blamed AI, but fake websites are typically created by modifying the HTML files of an existing website. He also said Americans "trust" Fox News and the Washington post, raising the question of if he's ever been on the internet.
*Meta and Facebook are banned in Russia for extremist activities
