The War on American Democracy: Will Big Media Step Up?

That Facebook Google Twitter and others boosted their profits for years by ignoring Russian Chinese and other bad actors who spread disinformation on their sites of course is reason enough to pitch in Social media39s executives obviously would say they39re doing just that pointing to investments in software and bodies to bolster their disinformation defenses But the problem confronting the media and the country isn39t technical or a lack of human resources The attack on American democracy calls for more than fixing politically carcinogenic algorithms or hiring humans to delete the tweets and memes from Moscow39s bots and trollsLike the motion picture and network moguls who made their movie and radio studios part of the arsenal of democracy in 1941 their 21st Century successors need to recognize it39s time to play a different role House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff DCalif may not have had Facebook or Twitter in mind but he put the task clearly Welcoming the new center Schiff said he hoped it quotcan accomplish the mission Congress intended arming US officials and the American people with information that they need to recognize and respond to foreign influence and interference campaigns that undermine our democracyquotWittingly or not Schiff also fingered a problem Put bluntly the intelligence agencies aren39t particularly adept at communicating with the American public That39s not a knock on their spokesmen or the spies and analysts who have exceptional knowledge to share Rather successive administrations have been all over the map on whether and how the intelligence agencies should reach out Their stop go and stumble record has produced an erratic history and credibility in public for universities think tanks and civic groups as well as the pressTo be fair spies and analysts face obvious challenges in transforming secrets into products for public consumption From intelligence from human sources who must be protected to analytical judgments that if publicized could rock political boats abroad declassifying what they do is always a judgment call Add their closeted cultures sometimes overclassified products and legal obligations to protect sources and methods it shouldn39t be a surprise that when communicating with the public is central to their mission the idea simply isn39t part of the intelligence world39s DNALet39s also stipulate that blunting the disinformation offensives now targeting America39s democracy is a herculean task Haines39 new hub will help drawing on experience from counterterrorism counterintelligence and counterproliferation centers that have bridged stovepiped bureaucracies and parochial divides But ensuring that intelligence is shared within the government doesn39t mean it will get to the public that has a quotneedtoknowquot as well Indeed in the political wars launched by Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping Americans are the target and their smartphones laptops iPads and flatscreens the main frontThat39s where the media industry must come in Setting up the new intelligence community center should be the catalyst for launching a comparable effort among broadcast and cable outlets as well as social media and online news A Democratic Defense Against Disinformation 20 the Atlantic Council39s superb 2019 study lays out many of the needs facing the private and public sectors at home and abroad A focal point among the broadcast cable social media and print outlets funded and staffed by the industry is the place to startTake only a few of the tasks that would make the new intelligence center39s outreach more effective For a private sector counterpart they39re low hanging fruit coordinating disinformation warnings across social media broadcast cable and print when new intelligence arrives updating shared databases on suspect foreign news sites and social media accounts and sharing access to civil society research factchecking and analysis such as the work at Oxford39s Computational Disinformation Project and Atlantic Council39s Digital Forensic Lab or investigative finding by groups such as Bellingcat to name just a fewFor the CEOs in Silicon Valley New York and Los Angeles giving the new intelligence center a hand shouldn39t wait for the Director of National Intelligence to call If she does big media39s bosses also should do more than quotshare their thoughtsquot They need to put their money where their mouths are After all in schmoozing their way around Washington they39re no strangers to picking up the check In 2020 the industry laid out 67 million on lobbying alone What39s wrong with the same trilliondollar companies anteing up at least as much to defend democracy as they do wining and dining to protect their bottom linesClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of 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The War on American Democracy: Will Big Media Step Up?

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Kent M. Harrington

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