A right-wing legal and political campaign has disrupted the work of government agencies meant to safeguard voting and subjected researchers studying online harms to harassment and death threats.sidestepped deciding when such communications can violate the First Amendment. Still, it answers a pressing question in an election year about the extent to which the government and tech firms can share information about foreign influence campaigns intended to sway American voters.
But even as the case brings clarity heading into the presidential election, it's just one element in a right-wing legal and political campaign that frames efforts to combat false and misleading information about consequential topics, including voting and health, as censorship.of government agencies meant to safeguard voting to subjecting researchers studying online harms to harassment and even death threats.
Today, such announcements would be"wild and completely unimaginable," Douek said, amid the wake of the Republican pressure campaign. Last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation stopped meeting with social media companies to share information about foreign influence campaigns after a district court judge issued an injunction in the case now known asit had no contact with any social media companies on Election Day in 2023. The agency also stopped using its own website to debunk election misinformation in real time.