(It’s useful to periodically recall that fewer than 10 percent of Facebook’s users are American.) First, while pressuring social media companies to take information warfare seriously, the public and the media will need to take steps to make ourselves less vulnerable to influence campaigns, by increasing our fluency with disinformation and media manipulation tactics. Two years after the 2016 election, there is still no single federal agency charged with securing American elections from cyberattacks and foreign influence campaigns. Mr. Trump and many other top Republicans have not formally acknowledged the extent of Russia’s 2016 campaign. If anything has changed since 2016, it’s that social media is no longer seen as just a useful tool for influencing elections.

Source: New York Times December 17, 2018 21:22 UTC