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36 J.L. & Pol. 1 (2021)

handle is hein.journals/jlp36 and id is 1 raw text is: Accounting for Foreign Disinformation: National Security
Regulatory Proposals for Social Media Accounts and False
Speech
Jonathan A. Schnader
I. INTRODUCTION
The ubiquity of social media in modern society carries with it a host of
national security concerns, some of which require new approaches, new
legal frameworks, and new policies to adequately address them. The current
major national security concerns in the social media space are the active
measures and disinformation campaigns.' Most notable among them are the
ones led by Kremlin-backed elements. These campaigns not only lead to
interference in Western democratic institutions, but they also cause panic
through fake news stories amplified by bots and trolls. All of these efforts
ultimately feed into a disinformation feedback loop.
Two examples of successful Russian disinformation campaigns are
particularly noteworthy. First, in the Incirlik Air Base incident, false news
about terrorists overtaking the United States' base circulated worldwide,
causing a small protest outside the gates of the base.2 Second, the false story
Jonathan A. Schnader lives in Washington, D.C. He earned his bachelor's degree in Psychology
and Classical Humanities from Miami University of Ohio. He earned his J.D. cum laude from Syracuse
University College of Law with a Certificate of Advanced Study in National Security and
Counterterrorism Law. Following law school, he worked as an Assistant Public Defender in Rochester,
NY for five and a half years, handling just under four thousand criminal cases. In addition to being
licensed to practice law in New York and Washington D.C., he is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering
Specialist. Jonathan graduated with distinction in 2019 from Georgetown University Law Center, where
he completed a Master of Laws in National Security. His academics and current practice focus on national
security dimensions of several areas, including cybersecurity; artificial intelligence; blockchain and
cryptocurrency; intelligence and counterintelligence; and social media.
This article uses the term disinformation, but some of the cited sources use the terms
misinformation and disinformation interchangeably. For a discussion of disinformation, that is,
intentionally incorrect information, versus, misinformation and mal-information, see Alice E.
Marwick, Why do People Share Fake News? A Sociotechnical Model ofMedia Effects, 2 GEO. L. TECH
REV. 474, 478 (2018).
2 See, e.g., Clint Watts, Clint Watts' Testimony: Russia's Info War on the U.S. Started in 2014, THE
DAILY BEAST (Mar. 30, 2017), https://www.thedailybeast.com/clint-watts-testimony-russias-info-war-
on-the-us-started-in-2014; Craig Timberg, Russian Propaganda Effort Helped Spread Fake News'
During     Election,    Experts     Say,    WASH.      POST      (Nov.     24,     2016),
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-
news-during-election-experts-say/20 16/1 1/24/793903b6-8a40-4ca9-b712-716af66098fe_story.html.

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