Lawmakers want disinformation plans from big tech as the election approaches

The Senate Intelligence Committee grilled top tech executives on election interference Wednesday.

Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft all answered questions on what their platforms are doing to ensure no major issues come up on Election Day. That includes blocking attempts by actors like Russia, China and Iran to release propaganda that would sway the opinions of Americans.

The testimony was a reiteration of a lot of the themes from the last few months warning about Russia, China and Iran trying to influence U.S. Elections.

Chairman Mark Warner told Scripps News Wednesday he wanted to use this opportunity to educate the public and make sure that the American people know that the “bad guys” are still trying to use mis- and disinformation to sway the election in the U.S. In November.

Lawmakers asked tech leaders about efforts to weed out misleading news websites and inform the public about what’s real and what’s fake online.

Microsoft’s vice chair and president Brad Smith told lawmakers the company hopes to “prepare the American public for the risks ahead. We do that by informing them, encouraging them to check what they see, to recheck it before they vote. We do it by, I think, recognizing that there is a potential moment peril ahead. Today, we are 48 days away from this election. The most perilous moment will come, I think, 48 hours before the election, that’s the lesson to be learned from say the Slovakian election last fall.”

Smith was referencing a deepfake video that went viral in Slovakia right before residents went to the polls. It was a message denigrating on the policies of one of the candidates there.

Smith also said that on Wednesday, Microsoft detected a Russian group online that had created and spread a video of Vice President Harris saying something that she had never actually said.

RELATED STORY | Supreme Court rejects Republican-led challenge to remove misinformation from social media

Chairman Warner was clear that the committee wants more information from tech companies in the following days. He said he wants to know specifically about ad dollars that they are getting from foreign malign actors in particular. He wants to know how much money Russia is earning off advertisements on those platforms. And he wants to know about the surge capacity and moderation abilities platforms will use as Election Day approaches and mis- and disinformation accelerate.