Social Media 2020 Elections Meeting

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Report: Social media companies met with U.S. officials to discuss 2020 election

The companies met with a number of U.S. intelligence agencies.

 

Andrew Wyrich

Tech

Posted on Sep 5, 2019   Updated on May 20, 2021, 4:45 am CDT

Several major tech and social media companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Microsoft met with government intelligence agencies yesterday to discuss the 2020 election, according to a new report.

Bloomberg, citing a source, reports that the meeting took place at Facebook’s headquarters on Wednesday. The companies met with officials from the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The meetings were to discuss how the companies are preparing for the 2020 election—as social media networks were used by Russia during the 2016 election to sow discord among American voters. In February, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team indicted numerous Russian nationals for their role in spreading disinformation during the election.

The New York Times notes that the companies and government officials talked about ways they could collaborate and share information about threats they see as the election draws nearer.

The companies reportedly also met ahead of the 2018 midterm elections to discuss their plans.

Recently, Facebook, Twitter, and Google have announced they took down state-backed disinformation campaigns related to the protests in Hong Kong.

You can read all of the Bloomberg report here.

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*First Published: Sep 5, 2019, 9:09 am CDT