WASHINGTON — The Justice Department remains committed to sharing with social media companies any information it learns about attempts by foreign governments to influence this year’s election. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco will say this at a lawyers’ conference on Friday.
At the American Bar Association’s annual meeting, Monaco, the association’s second-highest ranking official, said it was ultimately up to tech companies to decide what actions to take, but that “we will provide companies with actionable information to help them make decisions about abuse of their platforms by adversaries conducting foreign malign influence operations, including operations targeting our elections.”
The comments are part of a wide-ranging speech on election security, in which Monaco will also warn that Russia remains the biggest foreign threat to the election. with Moscow targeting specific voter demographics and the use of encrypted direct messaging apps to reach Americans and raise alarms about a growing threat of violence against government officials, including election workers.
The Ministry of Justice has spent the past two years prosecuted nearly 700 threat casesof which almost half were government officials.
“These threats are increasing and it is unacceptable. No one should have to endure threats of violence simply for doing their job,” Monaco said, according to prepared remarks obtained by The Associated Press. “To make the right to vote real for every American, election officials — who are often volunteers — must be able to do their jobs without undue influence, physical threats or other conduct intended to intimidate.”
The speech will be delivered during the ABA’s Democracy Summit in Chicago, with Monaco reminding the audience of lawyers of their duty to uphold the rule of law and promote confidence in the integrity of elections.
“Our republic depends on the functioning of a free and fair electoral process – with results that are respected and with elections that are free from violence and free from foreign interference,” Monaco will say.
Monaco’s comments come weeks after a Supreme Court ruling that allowed the federal government to communicate with social media companies, with the judges ruling against Republican-led states which alleged that federal officials relied on the platforms to unconstitutionally suppress conservative views. The court said the states and other parties had no legal right or standing to sue.
The department also made public this week for the first time a set of procedures the FBI uses to decide when to share information about threats to their platforms with social media companies, a move encouraged by a recent report from the Justice Department’s inspector general.
“As we carry out this work, we will continue to keep the public informed, not only about why we are doing this, but also about how we are doing it,” Monaco will say.
Under the procedures, the FBI may contact companies when it identifies activity on a platform that is being conducted by or on behalf of a foreign government in support of an influence operation or when there are specific and credible facts showing that the activity is attributable to a foreign government. The procedures state that the FBI must make clear that it is not asking the social media company to take action and that the company is not obligated to do so.