Shoring up democracy against wave of falsehoods
The storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6 and the threats of violence leading up to Wednesday’s inauguration have shown with remarkable clarity what happens when lies and falsehoods, including from some of the highest offices in the land, spread across the nation. People die. Insurrections arise. Lawlessness abounds.
We have seen these results with our own eyes, so there is no escaping them. The question is, how can Americans shaken and outraged by these realities best respond to the threats to our democracy?
Along with exercising our right to vote for and otherwise supporting candidates whom we favor, let me offer these priorities:
First, let us recognize that a reliable flow of information is now a pivotal battleground in the fight for democratic stability. This reality is not just an American problem, either. My Bush Institute colleagues Lindsay Lloyd and Chris Walsh and I spent much of the fall interviewing experts about the impact of modern technologies on democracies. What became clear is that the spread of disinformation and the promotion of alternative realities challenge democracies worldwide.
Take the coronavirus. China has used the pandemic as an opportunity to distort the realities of COVID-19. So has Russia.
Russia particularly has spewed out misinformation about America’s ongoing struggle to ensure racial equality. It has spread lies during elections here and abroad. And devastating recent cyberattacks on various parts of our government and private sector show how Russia seeks to erode confidence in our democracy, manipulate our citizens and sow distrust.
But let’s be clear: Leaders in democracies and their followers make the work of authoritarian nations easier whenever the former disseminate false information. As Nina Jankowicz writes in her book “How to Lose the Information War,” organizations like Russia’s Internet Research Agency are all too eager to amplify the falsehoods that others put out through social media and other means. They don’t have to make up stuff. They can just retweet or otherwise amplify what someone else has inaccurately claimed.
Second, policies and decisions can make a difference. One of the most effective, lowbudget steps state legislators and state education leaders can take is to support and prioritize effective media literacy courses in elementary and secondary schools.
The News Literacy Project has spawned such courses across the country, helping children in grades six through 12 acquire the skills to distinguish truth from fiction. Students then learn such strategies as consulting multiple sources to verify the veracity of the information they consume.
Third, social media companies have a special role to play. The Supreme Court has acknowledged that none of us has the right to “yell fire in a crowded theater,” so a private company curtailing the accounts of those whose false postings inflame passions that lead to violence is not inconsistent with constitutional decisions regarding speech. And it was appropriate that social media companies shut down content during our recent U.S. election that spread misinformation about how, where and when we could vote, and labeled information as false no matter its source.
Next, the companies must enforce their own terms of service against disseminating disinformation, strengthen internal infrastructure for identifying “fake news” and accounts, and further develop partnerships with firms that rate content for reliability and truthfulness.
Fourth, Congress should re-examine the federal statutes that rightly let the internet develop over the last 25 years without much interference. Technologies have changed rapidly, so it is appropriate for Congress to reconsider whether there are fair and limited ways for social media companies to be held responsible for the content that appears on their sites.
Fifth, Congress can help combat disinformation efforts by adequately funding entities like the U.S. State Department’s Global Engagement Center. The center then can constantly monitor and expose technological threats to our democracy, whether from deepfake videos, automated bots or fake news about the pandemic.
Sixth, the incoming Biden White House needs to lead an effective international response against disinformation and cyberattacks. U.S partnerships with countries such as Australia, Japan and South Korea, as well as multilateral structures like NATO, are essential to stopping a threat to all democracies.
There are other ways to bolster a reliable flow of information. The new administration should make freedom of the press a priority when challenging authoritarian leaders. And Congress should explore smart, but not intrusive, ways to stem the decline of local newspapers.
But, most of all, let us understand that we live in a new world, where a reliable flow of information is a uniquely important challenge for democracies, including our own.