If you follow politics in any way, chances are good that you’ve heard about the potential for foreign interference in our elections. These concerns are legitimate and deserve our attention. But they often leave out three important considerations.
First, they ignore the broader history of intervention by major powers in the electoral process. It’s been going on for centuries, and it has always involved more than just election tampering. It has also included a range of covert measures to sow doubt about the legitimacy of a process, drive polarization in society, or undermine trust and faith in democracy as a system of government and elections as its core process.
Second, they overlook the fact that foreign governments and citizens frequently have a decided opinion about how American voters should vote, and Americans should be allowed to take this view into account in formulating their votes. This is particularly true in countries with scores in the “Partly Free” category of Freedom House’s Internet Freedom Index, where digital interference tactics like informational measures, in which online discussions are surreptitiously manipulated; technical measures, in which access to news sources or communication tools is restricted; and legal measures, in which authorities punish regime opponents or chill political expression.
Third, they miss the fact that it’s very difficult to isolate the impact of troll-generated or hacked content from all the other factors that affect an election’s outcome, including the barrage of campaign advertising and news coverage; the many missteps that can skew public perception; and the plethora of third-party candidates that can sometimes serve as “spoilers” by splitting votes.