Former FEC Chair Calls for Government Agency to help tech companies discover disinformation campaigns
Former FEC Chair Calls for Government Agency to Collect
Social Media
Ann Ravel: expand definition of election ads, allow
Facebook, Twitter to 'turn over lots of information'
BY: Joe Schoffstall April 10, 2018 10:05 am
Ann Ravel, the former Democratic chair of the Federal
Election Commission who controversially pushed to regulate the internet during
her time leading the commission, is now suggesting a new government enforcement
agency be established to help tech companies discover questionable
communications from social media sites in an effort to find alleged
disinformation campaigns.
Ravel made the suggestions in a recent Atlantic essay
titled "How the Government Could Fix Facebook," which featured
insights from a number of experts and suggestions such as imposing fines for
data breaches, making tech companies liable for objectionable content, and
installing ethics review boards.
Under a section titled "Police Political
Advertising" within the piece, the former chair told the publication that
the definition of ‘election advertising' should be expanded to help detect new
disinformation campaigns that may not be found under the current definition.
This could be established if the FEC were to create a "multifaceted test"
to help determine if certain additional communications should fall under the
category of election-related materials, Ravel said.
Ravel added that if the definition were to be expanded, a
new government enforcement agency could be created to help the tech companies
find questionable communications, which would also help the FEC.
"For instance, communications could be examined for
their intent, and whether they were paid for in a nontraditional way—such as
through an automated bot network," The Atlantic writes of Ravel's idea.
The agency could mirror that of the Financial Crimes
Enforcement Network, which falls under the Treasury Department and tracks
financial activities flagged by large institutions, Ravel said. The Financial
Crimes Enforcement Network has been criticized in the past for allegedly
targeting small businesses while letting figures such as former Democratic New
York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer off the hook.
Ravel claimed that this would allow social media
sites—such as Facebook and Twitter—to hand over "lots of
communications" from their sites to the government agency.
"The platforms could turn over lots of communications
and the investigative agency could then examine them to determine if they are
from prohibited sources," Ravel told The Atlantic.
Ravel, who was first nominated to the FEC by President
Barack Obama, left the commission last year. Ravel pushed for controversial
internet regulations during her time heading the FEC, which came under fire for
its alleged potential to target conservative right-leaning outlets such as the
Drudge Report.
Ravel became a fellow at New America, a Washington,
D.C.-based think tank that has offices in California and New York, in March
2017. New America is led by Jonathan Soros, the son of liberal billionaire
George Soros. Soros also provides funding to the organization.
Ravel remains in the public spotlight and is credited as having
a role in an upcoming campaign finance documentary called Dark Money which will
be released "just in time for the midterms," Ravel tweeted.
Ravel did not respond to inquiries sent to New America on
what types of communications she believes should fall under a
"broadened" definition of election advertising.
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