US election influence campaigns will be hard to tackle

Significance

The announcement of this follows reports of alleged Russian and Iranian cyber operations in August and September that targeted the Trump and Harris campaigns, alongside public influence efforts leveraging domestic US organisations to sway public opinion. These incidents highlight ongoing foreign interference in the presidential election and underscore the limited defensive options available to US officials.

Impacts

• The United States will continue to accuse foreign governments of election interference in a name-and-shame strategy.
• Social media platforms will hesitate to remove political disinformation, fearing backlash from political parties or censorship claims.
• Without the cooperation of large tech firms, the US government will have to focus its takedown efforts on foreign infrastructure.