Election meddling will take new insidious forms

Subject

Election meddling.

Significance

With elections due in the EU, Canada and Australia in 2019 and the United States next year, social media firms have made significant efforts to prevent further misuse of their platforms. These efforts are likely to be effective, and manipulation of the kind attempted between 2016 and 2018 will not re-occur. However, the nature of the adversary has changed. The platforms are at risk of preparing to re-fight yesterday’s battles.

Impacts

• Containing the spread of harmful content via fringe platforms is a significant regulatory challenge.
• Governments may increase their reliance on offensive cybersecurity campaigns to contain foreign interference.
• Increased privacy on Facebook will make policing fake content harder as the platform will have restricted access to user content.