To the Editor,
What will be the most important source of news for voters during the 2020 presidential election?
When Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, testified in a Senate hearing he said; “didn’t do enough to
prevent these tools from being used for harm as well. That goes for fake news, foreign interference in
elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy. White House spokesman said;
It’s proven by every metric that Russian meddling did not affect on the outcome of the election. But,
Russia’s sophisticated, multipronged effort did meddle with the 2016 election. A Russian Agency
employed hundreds of people, which they called specialists, to create fake social media accounts,
particularly on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, that would appear to belong to ordinary American
citizens, according to the indictment.
But President Trump insisting that Mueller’s work is a ridiculous hoax, a series of legislative proposals
aimed at boosting election security were bottled up in the Republican-controlled Senate on Thursday
as lawmakers prepare to leave for their August recess. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (RKy.) quickly blocked the Democrats’ move, however, saying Washington’s intervention in the local
administration of elections needs to be carefully considered.
For the past two and a half years, the panel led by Chair Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) and Vice Chair
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) has reviewed the intelligence that the Kremlin sought to meddle in the last
presidential election, an effort separate from the highly partisan probe in the House that ended in
2018 and found no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Foreign adversaries are likely already planning to interfere in the 2020 U.S. election, the nation’s top
intelligence official warned on Tuesday. Former Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats wrote that
competitors such as Russia, China and Iran “probably already are looking to the 2020 U.S. elections
as an opportunity to advance their interests.” Note: Trump asks Coats to resign. In Coats’ statement,
he predicted that these countries “will use online influence operations to try to weaken democratic
institutions, undermine U.S. alliances and partnerships and shape policy outcomes in the United
States and elsewhere.” Moscow may also seek to spread disinformation; launch cyberattacks and
manipulate data.
Overall, half of Americans say they’re extremely or very concerned about foreign interference in the
form of altered election results or voting systems, even though hackers bent on causing widespread
havoc at polling places face challenges in doing so. A poll conducted, shows 63% of Americans have
significant concerns about at least one of those types of interference.
One concerned we should have what political ads are real or that distorted pictures, videos, or
articles. “United States officials are already grappling with Russian attempts to interfere in the 2020
presidential race, and are powerless to stop American tricksters from joining the fray because they
are protected by the First Amendment,” wrote Matthew Rosenberg. For example, by contrasting a
positive image (say a smiling face) alongside a negative image (say pollution), you might be
communicating that the smiling face caused the confusion, which may not be the case. Always check
spelling and the sentence structure, foreigner’s grammar, and pronunciation could have a different
meaning. This will tell you there is interference.
Changes in media technology have repeatedly knocked on American democracy. In the 21st century,
newsprint and improved presses allowed partisan newspapers to expand their reach dramatically.
Remember that in addition to the presidential election, there are state and local elections taking place
in many parts of the country, providing more opportunities for civic involvement.
Norman Halls
