As the United States marks the first anniversary of President Donald
Trump’s election, the question of how Trump won still commands
attention, with Russia’s role moving increasingly to centre stage. Each
new revelation in the investigation of Russia’s meddling in the 2016
campaign brings the vulnerability of the US democratic process into
sharper focus.
Last week, Congress unveiled legislation that would force Facebook,
Google, and other social media giants to disclose who buys online
advertising, thereby closing a loophole that Russia exploited during the
election. But making amends through technical fixes and public promises
to be better corporate citizens will solve only the most publicised
problem.
The tougher challenge will be strengthening institutions that are vital
to the functioning of democracy – specifically, civics education and
local journalism. Until gains are made in these areas, the threat to
America’s democratic process will grow, resurfacing every time the
country votes.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intelligence operatives chose wisely
in mounting their social media attack. Facebook hosts nearly 80% of all
mobile social media traffic, while Google accounts for close to 90% of
all online-search-related advertising. By inundating these two platforms
with automated messages from tens of thousands of bogus user accounts,
Russia was able to stoke discord along economic, racial, and political
lines.
Moreover, they did it cheaply. According to one analysis, with only
modest ad purchases on Facebook, Russian agents gained access to a
goldmine of online advertising data – such as Facebook’s customer
targeting software – which enabled the “sharing” of Russia’s fake news
hundreds of millions of times. At one point during this clandestine
assault, an estimated 400,000 bots – software applications that run
automated scripts – sent millions of fictitious political messages,
which in turn generated some 20% of all Twitter traffic during the final
month of the campaign.
It is bad enough that the technology world’s marquee names were not
prepared to parry foreign meddling in America’s most important election.
But the social media giants’ persistent denial of responsibility for
the volume of distorted and false information delivered as news, even as
Russia’s role has grown clearer, is more troubling.
Strip away the technobabble about better algorithms, more transparency,
and commitment to truth, and Silicon Valley’s “fixes” dodge a simple
fact: its technologies are not designed to sort truth from falsehoods,
check accuracy, or correct mistakes. Just the opposite: they are built
to maximise clicks, shares, and “likes.”
Despite pushing to displace traditional news outlets as the world’s
information platforms, social media’s moguls appear content to ignore
journalism’s fundamental values, processes, and goals. It is this
irresponsibility that co-sponsors of the recent advertising transparency
bill are seeking to address.
Still, Russia’s success in targeting American voters with bogus news
could not have succeeded were it not for the second problem: a poorly
educated electorate susceptible to manipulation. The erosion of civics
education in schools, the shuttering of local newspapers – and the
consequent decline in the public’s understanding of issues and the
political process – conspire to create fertile ground for the sowing of
disinformation.
Consider the evidence: In 2005, an American Bar Association survey found
that 50% of Americans could not correctly identify the country’s three
branches of government. By the time the Annenberg Centre for Public
Policy asked the same question in 2015, the percentage of such
respondents had grown to two thirds, and a staggering 32% could not name
a single branch. This slippage is apparently age-dependent; a 2016
study of Americans with university degrees found that those over 65
years of age know far more about how their government works than those
under 34.
There is a clear correlation between democratic illiteracy and a
de-emphasis on civics, government, and history education in schools. In
2006, for example, a national study that tracks student performance in
various subjects found that only a quarter of America’s 12th graders
were proficient in civics. A decade later, that percentage had sunk
below 25%.
Not surprisingly, overall educational quality and access to basic civics
coursework have also suffered in recent years. In 2011, a think tank
that ranks the 50 states on the rigour of their high schools’ US history
courses gave 28 states failing grades. A 2016 survey of 1,000 liberal
arts colleges found that only 18% required a US history or government
course to earn a degree.
High school or university courses by themselves will not keep gullible
voters from falling for bogus news or inflammatory disinformation. But
the viral spread of fake news stories initiated by Russian agents made
one thing clear: an electorate lacking a basic civics education is more
likely to fall for provocations designed to inflame partisan tensions.
Changes in the news industry are increasing that risk. As Internet
giants siphon away advertising revenue from traditional media outlets,
social media have become many people’s main source of news. Traditional
news organisations, especially local newspapers, are steadily
disappearing, shrinking voters’ access to information that is vital to
making informed political decisions.
The numbers are striking. Since 2004, 10% of all small-market newspapers
have closed or merged. Of those that survive, over a third have changed
ownership, concentrating the industry into fewer hands. The result has
been layoffs, cost-cutting, and diminished reporting on national and
local issues.
As for the media’s civic responsibility, that, too, seems to have
suffered. The managers’ manual from one investment firm that owns three
daily and 42 weekly newspapers does not mince words: “Our customer is
the advertiser,” the document states. “Readers are our customers’
customers,” so “we operate with a lean newsroom staff.”
Russia’s intervention in the 2016 US presidential election was historic,
but it was also symptomatic of bigger challenges facing Americans. A
population that does not fully understand its own democracy should
concern not only civics teachers, but national security experts as well.
The US didn’t need Putin to deliver that lesson. “If a nation expects
to be ignorant and free,” Thomas Jefferson warned, “it expects what
never was and never will be.” – Project Syndicate
* Kent Harrington, a former senior CIA analyst and Director of Public
Affairs, served as National Intelligence Officer for East Asia and Chief
of Station in Asia.