Concerns about foreign influence coincide
with stepped-up enforcement of a law
requiring the registration with the Justice
Department of lobbyists, media organizations
and other entities that do the bidding of
foreign government.
Special counsel Robert Mueller exposed
through his investigation the unregistered,
covert Russian campaign to spread
disinformation on social media.
The Justice Department is concerned about
China undertaking similar activities. Twitter
said it has suspended more than 200,000
accounts that it believes were part of a
Chinese government influence campaign
targeting the protest movement in Hong
Kong. The department last year also required
China’s state-owned television network,
CGTN, to register.
“Make no mistake, China is aggressively
pursuing foreign influence operations,” Nikki
Floris, an FBI deputy assistant director, said at
a recent congressional hearing. “So as we roll
into 2020, though Russia was certainly a threat
in 2016 (and) 2018, and will continue to be so
in 2020, we are also aggressively looking at
China as well.”
U.S. officials said the foreign influence
campaigns didn’t change midterm vote totals,
but there’s no question that concern remains
for 2020. Besides the hacking and subsequent
release of stolen emails, Russian agents in 2016
searched for vulnerabilities within election
systems in all 50 states and breached the
election systems of two Florida counties but
don’t appear to have done any damage.