As Meta gears up for the 2024 election, the company is grappling with a new challenge that could slow its efforts to combat foreign attempts at election interference. US government agencies have stopped sharing information with the company\u2019s security researchers about covert influence operations on its platform.<\/p>\n
Meta says that as of July, the government has \u201cpaused\u201d briefings related to foreign election interference, eliminating a key source of information for the company. During a call with reporters, Meta\u2019s head of security policy Nathaniel Gleicher, declined to speculate on the government\u2019s motivations, but the timing lines up with a court order<\/ins><\/a> earlier this year that restricted the Biden Administration\u2019s contacts with social media firms.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The order, the result of two states\u2019 attempts to limit platforms’ ability to remove misinformation, is currently suspended while the Supreme Court considers<\/ins><\/a> the case. But government agencies, like CISA (the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency) and the FBI, have apparently opted to keep the \u201cpause\u201d in place.<\/p>\n Gleicher noted that government contacts aren\u2019t Meta\u2019s only source of information, and that the company continues to work with industry researchers and other civil society groups. But he acknowledged that government officials can be best-placed to advise certain kinds of threats, like those that are coordinated on other platforms. \u201cWe have seen that particularly-sophisticated threat actors, like nation states, engaged in foreign interference\u2026 there are times when government has the capability to identify these campaigns that other players may not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Meta\u2019s researchers regularly share details about networks of fake accounts it catches boosting foreign propaganda and conducting other kinds of influence campaigns, what the company calls \u201ccoordinated inauthentic behavior\u201d or CIB. And while most of its takedowns don\u2019t come as a result of government tips, the company has relied on them in detecting CIB targeting US politics. Meta acted on three separate FBI tips about fake accounts from Russia, Iran and Mexico ahead of the 2020 presidential election.<\/p>\n Law enforcement officials have also expressed concern about the lack of coordination with social media platforms. The FBI previously told the House Judiciary Committee that it had \u201cdiscovered foreign influence campaigns on social media platforms but in some cases did not inform the companies about them because they were hamstrung by the new legal oversight,\u201d NBC News<\/em> reported<\/ins><\/a>, citing congressional sources.<\/p>\n Meta\u2019s latest comments are the first time the company has publicly confirmed that it is no longer receiving tips about election interference. The disclosure comes as the company ramps up its efforts to prepare for multiple elections in 2024, and the inevitable attempts to manipulate political conversations on Facebook. The company said in its latest report on CIB that China is now the third-most common source of coordinated inauthentic behavior on its platform, behind Russia and Iran.<\/p>\n This article originally appeared on Engadget at https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/the-us-government-is-no-longer-briefing-meta-about-foreign-influence-campaigns-130019156.html?src=rss
As Meta gears up for the 2024 election, the company is grappling with a new challenge that could slow its efforts to combat foreign attempts at election interference. US government agencies have stopped sharing information with the company\u2019s security researchers … Continue reading
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\nSource: Engadget – The US government is no longer briefing Meta about foreign influence campaigns<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"