Justice Dept. says it’s committed to sharing info about foreign election threats with tech companies

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department remains committed to sharing with social media companies information that it picks up about efforts by foreign governments to influence this year’s elections, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told a lawyers’ conference on Friday.

Speaking at the American Bar Association’s annual meeting, Monaco, the department’s No. 2 official, said that though it’s ultimately up to technology companies to decide what if any action to take, “We will provide companies with actionable intelligence so they can make decisions regarding abuse on their platforms by adversaries conducting foreign malign influence operations, including targeting our elections.”

The comments were part of a wide-ranging speech on election security in which Monaco also warned that Russia remains the primary foreign threat to elections, with Moscow targeting specific voting demographics and using encrypted direct-messaging apps to reach Americans, and sound an alarm about a rising threat of violence to public officials — including election workers.

The Justice Department in the last two years has prosecuted nearly 700 threat cases, more than half of which involved public officials.

“These threats are unacceptable. No one — no one — should endure threats of violence simply for doing their job,” Monaco said. “For the right to vote to be real for every American, election workers — who are often, after all, volunteers — must be able to do their jobs free from improper influence, physical threats, or any other conduct designed to intimidate.”

The speech was given at the ABA’s Democracy Summit in Chicago, with Monaco reminding the audience of lawyers of their obligation to uphold the rule of law and promote faith in election integrity.

“Our republic depends on the operation of a free and fair electoral process — with results that are respected and with elections that are free from violence and free from foreign interference,” Monaco said.

Monaco’s remarks come weeks after a Supreme Court ruling that permitted the federal government to interact with social media companies, with the justices ruling against Republican-led states who claimed federal officials leaned on the platforms to unconstitutionally squelch conservative points of view. The court said the states and other parties did not have the legal right, or standing, to sue.

The department this week also made public for the first time a series of procedures the FBI uses for deciding when to share information with social media companies about threats to their platforms. That step was encouraged in a recent report by the Justice Department inspector general.

“As we carry out this work, we will continue to keep the public updated not only about why we are doing it but also how” Monaco said.

Under the procedures, the FBI may be in touch with companies when it identifies activities on a platform being conducted by, or on behalf of, a foreign government to support an influence operation or if there are specific and credible facts showing the activity can be attributed to a foreign government.

The procedures state that the FBI must make clear that it is not asking the social media company to take any action and that the company is under no obligation to do so.