Securing Democracy Dispatch

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Check out GMF’s coverage of NATO’s 75th anniversary Summit and Public Forum! Find expert insights on the issues facing the alliance here, on X, and on YouTube.

The dismantling of a Russian online influence network by the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, and officials from X “shows that the government and private sector are still cooperating to combat foreign malign influence,” but there are likely many more operations “that have evaded detection”, Senior Fellow Bret Schafer told the New York Times. Furthermore, this campaign is significant because it was run through RT and Russian intelligence instead of proxies, troll farms, and cutouts, Schafer told Fox News’ Special Report with Bret Baier.

Domestic instability in democracies allows NATO’s adversaries to weaken the democratic example on the world stage and fill the vacuum with an authoritarian alternative, Co-Managing Director David Salvo said on FOX LiveNOW. Therefore, NATO should establish a Center for Democratic Resilience to help members’ societal approaches to disinformation and interference, Salvo wrote on GMF’s website.

Artificial intelligence (AI) supercharges “the ability to create false audio and video that looks real”—which can impact an election if spread at scale, Co-Managing Director Rachael Dean Wilson told Scripps News.

Russian diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week:

• Hospital Attack: As is customary, Russian officials and state media denied responsibility for a missile attack that destroyed a children’s hospital in Kyiv. Almost all outlets alleged that Ukraine was responsible for what Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed was “a [Ukrainian] PR stunt built on blood”. Similarly, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Spokesperson Maria Zakharova stated that Ukraine “deliberately deploy[s] air defence systems in residential areas” and that its “use [of the tragedy] for propaganda purposes confirm[s] its Nazi essence”.  In comments widely distributed by Russian state media and diplomatic accounts, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov commented that Washington was “hypocritically silent” about the facts of the case, and that “Kiev’s Western backers appear to want to use allegations of a Russian-attributed strike on a hospital in Kiev as a justification for further escalation of the conflict in Ukraine”.
• Biden’s Fitness for Office: Russian state media provided extensive coverage of the ongoing drama in the United States over whether President Joe Biden should continue his candidacy for president. In a week when European leaders gathered in Washington for the NATO Summit, Russian state media highlighted reports that G7 and NATO leaders “[had] their doubts” about whether Biden could serve another term. While there were several posts that mocked Biden’s debate performance or denigrated his mental fitness, Russian state media’s coverage of the issue largely mirrored, and often was sourced from, major US media outlets. 

The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week:

• Shanghai Cooperation Organization: Last week, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization held its 24th annual summit in Astana, Kazakhstan. The main development this year was Belarus’ inclusion into the grouping. The PRC encouraged the other countries in attendance to “jointly oppose external interference” from unnamed third countries, and Xinhua shared PRC leader Xi Jinping’s denouncement of the “real threat from the Cold War mentality”. CGTN Europe also quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin, who commented that “the circle of countries that … are ready to resolutely defend their legitimate rights and defend traditional values is expanding”.
• Orbán and Ukraine: CGTN Europe described Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s surprise visit to Beijing as a “peace mission” for which, according to Xinhua, Xi “expressed appreciation”. On Monday, the PRC MFA spokesperson explained that “China and Hungary share the same basic propositions”. On Tuesday, in response to a question about a Russian attack on a Ukrainian hospital, the MFA spokesperson replied that “all parties should remain cool-headed and exercise restraint”. CGTN Europe highlighted Ukraine’s drone response to the hospital strike in “six Russian regions”. The PRC embassy in France shared a rant from audience members at a public event who claimed that the United States is fomenting World War III in Ukraine, Taiwan, and Palestine.

Russia aims to undermine Biden in 2024 election, US intelligence says: US intelligence officials warned that Russia has begun its campaign to influence the 2024 US presidential election, targeting key voting demographics to exploit existing political divisions, such as those over Ukraine, and undermine specific candidates, including President Joe Biden. Co-Managing Director David Salvo told the Dispatch, “I’m thoroughly unsurprised by the assessment in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s report. Russian President Vladimir Putin himself has said publicly that he has a clear preference for Donald Trump’s candidacy in the 2024 presidential race. It’s not hard to surmise why: he is hoping Trump ends US military assistance to Ukraine and pressures the Ukrainian government to negotiate a settlement to the war on favorable terms to Russia—one that sees Ukraine concede significant territory. So why wouldn’t the Kremlin put state assets behind information operations targeting American voters ahead of the election? And indeed, the Kremlin has gone to great lengths to ensure its state-sponsored propaganda continues to reach American audiences, despite efforts by tech platforms to downrank or ban such content from Kremlin mouthpiece RT. Tactics include bot farms working at the behest of RT itself and for-profit proxy sites amplifying RT articles that ultimately generate lots of views thanks to search engine optimization.”

SCOTUS defends social media platforms’ content moderation rights: The US Supreme Court ruled that laws passed in Florida and Texas that restricted social media platforms’ ability to moderate content on their sites, including by banning users and removing posts, violate the platforms’ constitutional rights. Senior Fellow Bret Schafer said, “The Supreme Court’s ruling did not permanently settle the debate over whether the government can regulate the content moderation decisions of private companies, but it certainly sent a signal that the court broadly views those efforts as unconstitutional. If the court had decided otherwise, it would have severely limited efforts by companies to not just remove violative posts, but also to prioritize fact-based content, if that content could somehow be perceived to favor partisan interests. That would have made it nearly impossible for companies to engage meaningfully on a range of issues, including safeguards for elections.”

In Case You Missed It

• A group of state election officials have claimed that a rule proposed by the US Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to require election offices to inform the US government of suspected cyber intrusions presents a burden for local officials.
• A change to YouTube’s policy will allow users to request the removal of AI-generated content that simulates their face or voice under the site’s privacy request process.
• CISA released guidance for election workers to keep sensitive data, information, and access to systems safe from threat actors.
• NATO agreed to create an Integrated Cyber Defense Center to convene civilian, military, and industry officials to inform the alliance’s military commanders of cyber threats.
• African defense leaders have expressed growing concerns about Russian disinformation’s destabilizing effects on the continent, the commander of US Africa Command said.

NATO Summit Side Event: Strengthening Security Through Democratic Resilience. Co-Managing Director David Salvo spoke at United States Institute of Peace event

Debate Night: Trust in US Elections and the Peaceful Transition of Power. Co-Managing Director Rachael Dean Wilson and Program Coordinator Louis Savoia wrote in GMF

Business as Unusual: Europe’s Next Leadership and the Challenges Ahead. Senior Manager for Europe and Fellow Vassilis Ntousas and Adam Hsakou wrote in GMF

Information laundering and the Russian propaganda nesting doll. Investigative Data and Research Analyst Peter Benzoni quoted in Point Conference

French elections 2024: far-right National Rally comes top, first results suggest. Research Analyst Etienne Soula interviewed on Euronews

Nato, il cambio di passo per evitare lo stallo: “Mosca può resistere quattro anni” (NATO changing pace to avoid a stalemate: “Moscow can last four years”). Co-Managing Director David Salvo quoted in La Stampa

Columna de Vassilis Ntousas: Hacia una victoria histórica del laborismo y la amenaza de Farage (Vassilis Ntousas’ Column: Towards a historic victory for Labour and the Farage threat). Senior Manager for Europe and Fellow Vassilis Ntousas wrote in La Tercera

La nueva generación de ultraderecha que irrumpe en Europa (The new far-right generation that is breaking into Europe). Senior Manager for Europe and Fellow Vassilis Ntousas wrote in La Tercera

Rosyjska propaganda omija unijne sankcje. Kryje się w serwisach o finansach, religii, a nawet jodze (Russian propaganda circumvents EU sanctions. It hides in websites about finance, religion and even yoga). Investigative Data and Research Analyst Peter Benzoni quoted in Polskie Radio 24

Week in Review. ASD research/“A Strategy for US Public Diplomacy in the Age of Disinformation” cited in The Regulatory Review

“Our democracy depends on the willingness of election workers to do their jobs without having to live in fear. Today’s sentence should serve as yet another reminder that the Justice Department will not hesitate to prosecute those who threaten violence to influence how our public servants administer elections.”

—Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri of the US Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, in a July 9 press release announcing the sentencing of a man to 14 months in prison for threatening the life of an election worker after the 2020 US election.

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