Imagine if during World War II the Germans could have paid millions of dollars to minor American celebrities to show pro-Nazi short films in American cinemas. It sounds absurd, but it’s actually miniscule compared to what our enemies can achieve today through social media.
On Tuesday evening, Alexis Wilkins, the girlfriend of FBI Director Kash Patel, dropped a stunning thread on
Wilkins claims to convincingly demonstrate that online campaigns in 2024 portraying her as an Israeli spy were coordinated through foreign online accounts such as Russia Today. The detailed evidence she provides is confusing to laypeople, but what it clearly shows is an inorganic growth of the conspiracy.
X app on an iPhone (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
This same network, it claims, is trying to undermine the Trump administration’s military efforts in Iran by applying this inorganic pressure to US social media.
CHINA RACES AHEAD ON AI – TRUMP WARNS AMERICA CANNOT REGULATE ITSELF IN DEFEAT
The FBI declined to comment on Wilkins’ message. But just two hours after the ad was published,
In this key part of the statement, Bier admitted that the reason for this change is to thwart foreign interference in our elections, writing, “While we value everyone’s opinions on American politics, we hope this will discourage attention from American accounts.”
And, boy, has there been a lot of foreign gambling lately, which no doubt contributed to the announcement.
IRAN NETWORKS SUFFER LOSSES DURING AIR RAIDS, SHOWING DIGITAL EVOLUTION OF CONFLICTS
But at 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday, X owner Elon Musk posted a message saying it wasn’t actually that fast. His post was in response to an account claiming to be an American living in France who could see his income stream diminished by the move. Musk said the change would be delayed and reviewed.
This malware attack masquerades as a CAPTCHA intended to separate humans from bots. (KrebsOnSecurity)
Wherever the policy ultimately ends up, it is very welcome news that the platform is taking the threat of foreign information operations on US social media seriously.
So far, however, the focus of the response to this proposed change has been deprioritized exactly in reverse, celebrating the fact that foreign accounts could not make money by obsessing over American politics.
MIKE DAVIS: THE RULES OF LOCAL TV ARE OLDER THAN THE INTERNET. THAT’S INSANE
That’s a benefit, but it pales in comparison to the proposal’s other consequence, which is that foreign enemies will no longer be able to use bot farms to funnel millions of dollars to divisive American content creators.
When a Russian bot farm floods an anti-American post with 20,000 impressions and shares, it increases the revenue of the account it creates, even though the creators themselves have no idea and think the growth is completely organic.
To return to our analogy, imagine if your radio gave you a steady stream of Nazi-bought German propaganda every night in 1943. The government would of course have closed it down. But that option doesn’t really exist online.
Elon Musk speaks at the Viva Technology conference focused on innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris on June 16, 2023. (Chesnot/Getty Images)
BRETT VELICOVICH: IRAN BUILT A DRONE TERROR MACHINE – AMERICA JUST CHOPPED IT
At least not yet.
At that time, barriers and gatekeepers were in place to protect Americans from foreign information operations. Today there are virtually none, and there is an asymmetric information war.
Hopefully Musk can find a way to implement this localization of monetization to tackle enemy propaganda, but if he and the industry can’t close this open information wound, the government may have to.
AMERICA MUST LEAD AI WITH SPEED AND DISCIPLINE – OR CHINA WILL DOMINATE
For example, recently X changed its platform to show the country of origin of its accounts, but this is easily overcome by foreign bots with VPNs. Again, good instincts, but no ability to really monitor the platform.
Musk finds himself in a difficult position here. He doesn’t want to censor anyone, but he also doesn’t want X to become a bustling marketplace of foreign-funded anti-American propaganda, and these proposed changes to localize the profits seem like a very good compromise.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS ADVICE
Whether the industry can solve this problem itself or whether more government regulation is needed, the government should investigate exactly what percentage of our political social media is being pushed by foreign bots.
This should not be done to punish the social media companies, but to punish the foreign enemies who are literally engaged in a form of cyberwar against our nation.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
President Donald Trump implemented strong borders to keep migrants out, tariffs to keep out products that make us less competitive, and voter ID to protect elections. Now he must focus on building a strong wall to protect America’s social media from our adversaries.
Simply put, if we can’t protect our information ecosystem, we can’t protect anything.
CLICK HERE TO DAVID MARCUS
