#DEFCON: Why Social Media Security is Election Security

There may be little if any argument about the vast impact that social media platforms have on the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world. Social media has also had a profound influence on elections.

In a session at the DEF CON 29 conference on August 7, Sebastian Bay, a researcher at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), outlined how social media platforms are failing at limiting the risk of false information dissemination, via inadequate security policies that aim to remove fake accounts. In Bay's view, the failure to block some of the false information should be considered as a critical component of election security.

Bay explained that there are basically two related types of issue that could lead to false information. There is the issue of content itself, and then the issue of inauthentic behavior, which is about bots and other automated mechanisms designed to appear as real human activity.

In Bay's view, the major social media platforms have made concerted efforts in recent years regarding election-related content. That said, he noted that it is tricky to develop clear policies for inauthentic behavior and other forms of social media manipulation. To be clear, Bay emphasized that inauthentic behavior is not permitted by the social media companies, though it continues to occur.

"The European Union has long underscored the need for social media companies to intensify and demonstrate effective methods to close fake accounts," Bay said.

The social media companies do in fact report to the European Commission about the ..

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