Disinformation campaign targeting Roy Moore’s Senate bid may have violated law, Alabama AG says
Disinformation campaign targeting Roy Moore’s Senate bid
may have violated law, Alabama AG says
By Craig Timberg,Tony Romm December 27, 2018 10:54 AM
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said Thursday
that his office is exploring whether disinformation tactics deployed against
Republican Roy Moore during last year's special election violated state
campaign laws and said he was worried that the operation could have affected
the closely fought Senate race.
"The information is concerning," Marshall, a
Republican, said in a phone interview. "The impact it had on the election
is something that's significant for us to explore, and we'll go from
there."
Moore lost the election to his Democratic rival, Sen.
Doug Jones.
Marshall, who said he learned of the disinformation
campaign called Project Birmingham through news reports over the past two
weeks, stopped short of announcing a formal investigation but said his office
was beginning to gather information about the effort.
"We're planning to explore the issue further,"
Marshall said.
Internet billionaire Reid Hoffman apologized on Wednesday
for giving $750,000 to a group, American Engagement Technologies, that
allegedly had ties to an effort to undermine support for Moore and bolster
Jones. The new senator has called for a federal investigation into Project Birmingham.
Hoffman said in his statement Wednesday that he did not
know that the money had been used for disinformation tactics, including a
reported effort to create fake evidence that automated Russian accounts, called
bots, were supporting Moore in the race.
Jonathon Morgan, chief executive of Texas-based research
firm New Knowledge, has acknowledged being paid by American Engagement
Technologies to experiment on a small scale with disinformation tactics,
including creating a Facebook page that sought to appeal to Republicans who
might not support Moore. Morgan has repeatedly denied that he attempted to
affect the outcome of the election or that he had any role in the broader
efforts of Project Birmingham.
Morgan did not immediately respond to a request for
comment on Marshall's actions in Alabama.
A spokesman for Hoffman did not immediately respond to a
request for comment. Hoffman previously said it would be a "good
idea" for investigators to probe what happened in Alabama.
"We cannot permit dishonest campaign tactics to go
unchecked in our democracy - no matter which side they purportedly help,"
Hoffman said in his apology.
Dmitri Mehlhorn, a political advisor for Hoffman,
declined to comment. Moore, contacted through his former spokeswoman, did not
immediately respond. A spokeswoman for Jones did not immediately respond to
requests, either.
Marshall said in the interview that the rapidly changing
nature of campaigning on social media has made it difficult for authorities to
know how to address disinformation tactics in elections.
“Technology has put us in a difficult position in many
respects in terms of the applicability of our current laws,” Marshall said.
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