What could Donald Trump do to prevent foreign interference in the US? Spoiler: he likely won’t do anything – as he personally benefits from it.
But in a better world, an American president would act with politicians, regardless of their party affiliation, to protect his own nation – and fellow democracies. If that would happen, what would it sound like in the year 2017?
To get an idea, listen to what Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said in the second reading of the newly unveiled National Security Legislation Amendment (Espionage and Foreign Interference) Bill of 2017.
Not only does he talk about changes in technology, he speaks of the underlying value and motivation in defending democracy this way. Rather than simply discussing the mechanics, he discusses the morals – and importantly, helps locate this complex issue for the public.
Turnbull’s entire statement is worth reading, as he distinguishes between fear and realism around the issue of China. However, he gets to the challenge in noting that technology “designed to bring us together…is being used as an instrument of division.”
And until the forces of democracy can align themselves in this new technological period, to reverse that situation, democracies will remain divided.
Turnbull’s words:
Our relationship with China is far too important to put at risk by failing to clearly set the terms of healthy and sustainable engagement. Modern China was founded by the statement that Chinese people have stood up. And today, and every day, the Australian people stand up and assert their sovereignty in our nation, with our parliament and with our laws.
Anyone who has glanced at the international media over the course of this year will see that questions of foreign interference are not all about China—far, far from it. Globally, Russia has been wreaking havoc across the democratic world.
There are credible reports that Russia was actively undermining the integrity of the Brexit referendum, this year’s presidential elections in France and last year’s presidential election in the United States.
And other nations are reportedly conducting interference operations outside their borders, including Iran and North Korea.
In some cases, authoritarian states have been literally manufacturing public opinion in order to hijack political discourse and tilt the decision-making landscape to their advantage.
These are their aims but it is up to us to determine whether they are successful.
And now these methodologies have been turbocharged by cyber.
The very technology that was designed to bring us together, the internet, is being used as an instrument of division.
Russian agents seeking to sow discord in the United States reached 126 million users on Facebook, published more than 131,000 messages on Twitter and uploaded over 1,000 videos to YouTube, according to the belated admissions from those platforms.
We are witnessing the mass production, the democratisation if you like, of disinformation.
George Orwell portrayed a post-truth dystopia, where, ‘The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.’
His dark prophecy is not our present reality but nor is it entirely fantasy.
Listen to the recently retired US Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, in his testimony to the US Congress in May:
If there has ever been a clarion call for vigilance and action against a threat to the very foundation of our democratic political system, this episode is it.
This is not just a call for action in the US. It is a clarion call to open societies everywhere.
We must ensure Australian democracy is resilient to all threats, from any country, now and in the future.
The Cold War Daily 