Securing Democracy Dispatch

ASD’s Hamilton 2.0 dashboard has been updated! The interactive tool now includes data from Russian, Chinese, and Iranian state media and information channels on Telegram, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Explore the dashboard here.

While X (formerly Twitter) remains the key platform of choice for authoritarian messaging, Chinese state media holds a large following on Facebook, while Russia dominates Telegram. Read more of our key takeaways from the updated Hamilton 2.0 Dashboard here.

Private sector leadership alone is insufficient to advance privacy-preserving technology; the government’s involvement is critical, Senior Fellow Lindsay Gorman explained in Semafor. 

Biden issues sweeping AI order ahead of international summit: On Monday, President Biden issued a wide-ranging executive order to mitigate the national security risks of artificial intelligence, including requiring developers to share safety test results with the government, establishing standards for identifying AI-generated content, and enlisting numerous government agencies to monitor risks. Days later, 28 countries—including the United States and China—signed a declaration that warned of AI-related risks at the AI Safety Summit in Britain. Senior Fellow Lindsay Gorman said, “Through its latest executive order, the United States is embracing an innovation-forward approach to AI risks—but that doesn’t and shouldn’t mean charging ahead on innovation irrespective of harms to human rights, dignity, and democratic accountability. Instead, we are seeing the beginnings of an embrace of directed innovation—steering innovation to support democratic values through initiatives like setting standards for content provenance and authenticity technologies and privacy-preserving AI. Innovation isn’t the be-all and end-all or a substitute for meaningful regulation, but we need our best and brightest minds to build next-generation technologies that advance democratic values at home and around the globe.”

State Department pre-bunks Russian Spanish-language disinformation campaign: The US Department of State’s entity for countering foreign disinformation and propaganda has taken an unprecedented step by disclosing a covert Russian-state influence campaign in its early stages in hopes of halting its influence in Central and South America. Research Analyst Joseph Bodnar told the Dispatch, “Russian disinformation tends to move faster than US government bureaucracy. The State Department’s pre-bunking attempt shows it is trying to address that issue. This move also highlights the importance of countering Russia’s Spanish-language disinformation. Moscow has had success spreading Spanish-language content through overt state media, and now the Kremlin is seeking to build on that top-down success with a bottom-up effort that launders narratives through seemingly local sources. Pre-bunking should help counter that threat.”

Ariz. officials lead bipartisan effort to post ballot images online: Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and State Senator Ken Bennett are at the forefront of a bipartisan effort to publish online images of every ballot cast in the state’s elections in an effort to increase transparency and combat election denialism. Co-Managing Director Rachael Dean Wilson said, “Over the past three years, false claims of rigged elections have rocked Arizona’s politics and eroded public trust. This push to post ballot images online has two key components for rebuilding that trust. First, it is bipartisan, which is critical in overcoming the divisive politics around election denialism in the state. Second, it is transparent—interested parties could actually check the election tallies if they are so inclined. The effort is also a recognition that election officials, elected leaders, and party leaders should be open to trying new ideas that can increase faith in elections—and in US democracy more broadly.”

In Case You Missed It

• China has accelerated efforts to replace Western components in its technology with domestic options in response to mounting US export controls, according to Reuters.
• Arizona’s attorney general is investigating two election supervisors who refused to certify Cochise County’s midterm election results in 2022 before the state’s deadline.
• G7 leaders agreed to an international code of conduct for companies developing artificial intelligence systems, which urges companies to take measures to identify risks and tackle misuse after these systems are made public.
• China has stepped up efforts to boost their preferred candidates in California’s elections, prompting increased concern from state officials, a US federal prosecutor told the US House Judiciary Committee.
• A coalition of 48 countries—including the United States—as well as the European Union and Interpol will sign a joint statement pledging not to pay ransoms demanded by hackers.
• European Union leaders endorsed the use of profits from frozen Russian state assets to fund Ukraine’s reconstruction at a European Council meeting.

“Just as AI has the potential to do profound good, it also has the potential to cause profound harm… The actions we take today will lay the groundwork for how AI will be used in the years to come.”

—US Vice President Kamala Harris said during remarks on the future of artificial intelligence in London on November 1.

The views expressed in GMF publications and commentary are the views of the author alone.