Election Interference Forum Held
By Dan Murphy
Several local Indivisible groups in Westchester held a forum to warn of, and discuss, Russian interference in the upcoming 2020 presidential campaign.
“The Mueller Report made it clear that the Russians, through their social media arm, the Internet Research Agency, carried out a massive social media disinformation campaign to attack our nation and undermine our elections – the cornerstone of our democracy,” wrote Indivisible New Rochelle, Indivisible Westchester and NYCD-16 Indivisible.
“Instead of securing future elections, Trump has instead openly attacked our American intelligence and security apparatus while praising the former head of the KGB and current president of Russia, Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, in the U.S. Senate, Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been blocking every Democratic effort to secure and protect our 2020 elections from ongoing Russian attacks.”
The forum was held June 8 at the Yonkers Public Library, and speakers included disinformation expert Renee DiResta and social media expert Justin Hendrix.
“Disinformation has turned social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter into very real threats to democracy,” said Indivisible New Rochelle’s co-lead Kim Snyder. “With the 2020 elections looming, and Trump’s GOP unwilling to act, social media literacy is an essential defense we must develop. This forum is a step in building the knowledge base, so we can effectively fight back as an engaged and informed community of citizen activists.”
DiResta co-authored The Disinformation Report for the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee and her writing and analysis have been featured in several media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Bloomberg, Fast Company, Politico and more.
“Renee DiResta has been tracking and studying foreign social media activity in the U.S. since the Obama administration,” said NYCD16-Indivisible’s Tara Herman. “Now, given what we have learned from the Mueller Report, it’s critical for every American to hear about her work.”
Justin Hendrix is executive director of NYC Media Lab and an expert on emerging media technology, as well as the founder of AuthenticElections.org.
“The FBI has already warned us that Russia is determined to meddle in the 2020 U.S. election.” said Shannon Powell, co-founder of Indivisible Westchester. “Sadly, we can’t depend on the president or our social media companies to protect us from foreign or homegrown disinformation. That’s why this forum is important . People need to know what disinformation looks like and how to defend against it.”
The photo on the front page was one of the pieces of election fake news that ran on social media in the days before the 2016 election. We applaud Indivisible Westchester and their partners for highlighting this issue.
One concern from our newspapers is that while Robert Mueller’s report identifies more than a dozen Russian agents for their interference in our presidential elections, the people of Westchester and the United States still do not have enough information, from Facebook or any other online entity, on who posted these fake ads and where they came from.
