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 would be able to share information about foreign influence campaigns intended to sway American voters.
That's a stark change from the run-up to the last presidential election. Then, social networks such as Facebook were eager to promote their collaborations with each other and with government partners, to show they had made improvements since 2016, when Russian operatives tried to use social media to sway American voters.
While companies including Facebook owner Meta and YouTube owner Google continue to put out information on their ongoing election integrity efforts, they have not sought to advertise their interactions with governments.a data analysis tool popular with journalists and researchers and replacing it with a content library available to a smaller group.
Universities and independent research groups have been flooded with document requests and subpoenas, racking up hefty legal fees and taking time away from their core work. Individual researchers and even undergraduate students working in the field have been harassed and attacked online.