Editorial: Hostile meddling: Russia and Iran want a vote in our election

Foreign governments trying to tip the scales of American elections is nothing new, but the brazenness with which Russia and Iran are meddling in the 2024 presidential election is notable.

In a DOJ indictment, federal authorities announced charges and sanctions against Russian-government-linked operatives for interfering to boost Donald Trump, including funneling $10 million to the U.S.-based Tenet Media, which employs right-wing and pro-Russia propagandist including Tim Pool, Benny Johnson and Dave Rubin.

Separately, Iran has been setting up fake news sites and taken other steps to sow political discord, at least partly aimed at hurting Trump’s chances. Kamala Harris should not welcome this support from the mullahs nor should Trump bask in being the Kremlin’s favorite, though Trump at least has seemed happy with foreign interference on his behalf before.

The American internet personalities funneled millions in Moscow’s cash — unwittingly, they claim — should do some self-reflection, though we won’t be holding our breath for the likes of Benny Johnson to take time for contemplation. At the very least, they should explain why it seems the Russian state thought they were such a good investment.

Russia and Iran are particularly nasty players and adversaries on the world stage, but of course we don’t want anyone trying to stick their mitts in our elections, even friends. Other countries are inevitably going to have an interest in political affairs that determine the direction of this country. But they can make their preferences known through official communiques and registered lobbying, not subterfuge, astroturfing, direct political spending or troll armies.

Part of the trouble is the difficulty in rooting out these campaigns and taking action against them. The commentators that took the Russian money still, of course, are perfectly within their First Amendment rights to parrot Putin talking points. The funneling of the money is a crime but it is not a crime for the recipients to be unwitting useful idiots. The kind of speech that the Iranians are fomenting with their fake sites and the Russians are stoking with their bot armies is perfectly permissible political speech when engaged in by Americans airing their views.

That legitimate and illegitimate political speech can look identical makes it harder to police, and generates the risk that overzealous government responses will end up violating free speech rights. That’s why we need the tech giants that often facilitate and host this content to be more proactive about preventing misuse in the first place — for example, building in safeguards to prevent large language models to easily emulate voters and spread political messages — and Washington to respond forcefully with diplomatic pressure and tangible consequences for countries found to be engaged in these efforts.

More broadly, it wouldn’t hurt to get Americans a bit more media literate so they’re not as susceptible to these influence campaigns in the first place. The weakening of public faith in media and other institutions is helping produce the information free-for-all, which benefits no one and makes it impossible for many people to tell fact from fiction. It won’t be easy, but we must inch back to a place where we can all at least live in the same reality.

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