Bret Schafer on The Weaponisation Of Information and Social Media

Bret Schafer from the Alliance for Securing Democracy was our guest on today’s show. They are currently trying to understand how to combat any future attempts by foreign or domestic bad actors to hijack or disrupt democratic elections or influence political conversations online. They aren’t interested in contesting what has gone on during elections over the past few years, rather they want to understand how to combat the weaponisation of information online in order to order to preserve the sanctity of democracy. We spoke all about the ways in which trolls and bots can be used online to influence conversations, as well as how social media firms could and are combatting “junk news” and misinformation. **Resources** [http://securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/](http://http://securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/) [http://dashboard.securingdemocracy.org/](http://http://dashboard.securingdemocracy.org/) [http://www.thejist.co.uk/science-and-tech/russian-bots-us-election-trevors-axiom/](http://http://www.thejist.co.uk/science-and-tech/russian-bots-us-election-trevors-axiom/) [http://www.thejist.co.uk/politics/russia-bots-brexit/](http://http://www.thejist.co.uk/politics/russia-bots-brexit/) [http://www.thejist.co.uk/science-and-tech/tech-giants-tackling-bots-misinformation/](http://http://www.thejist.co.uk/science-and-tech/tech-giants-tackling-bots-misinformation/) [http://www.thejist.co.uk/politics/dismissed-dnc-fraud-lawsuit-explained/](http://http://www.thejist.co.uk/politics/dismissed-dnc-fraud-lawsuit-explained/) [http://www.thejist.co.uk/politics/us/trump-clinton-russia-cant/](http://http://www.thejist.co.uk/politics/us/trump-clinton-russia-cant/) [http://www.thejist.co.uk/podcast/chatter-episode-10-elizabeth-vos-dnc-lawsuit-clinton-trump-russia/](http://http://www.thejist.co.uk/podcast/chatter-episode-10-elizabeth-vos-dnc-lawsuit-clinton-trump-russia/) [https://www.vox.com/videos/2017/4/17/15325172/strikethrough-cnn-espn-trump-surrogates](http://https://www.vox.com/videos/2017/4/17/15325172/strikethrough-cnn-espn-trump-surrogates) [https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/womans-effort-to-infiltrate-the-washington-post-dates-back-months/2017/11/29/ce95e01a-d51e-11e7-b62d-d9345ced896d_story.html](http://https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/womans-effort-to-infiltrate-the-washington-post-dates-back-months/2017/11/29/ce95e01a-d51e-11e7-b62d-d9345ced896d_story.html) [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/01/us/politics/russia-2016-election-facebook.html](http://https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/01/us/politics/russia-2016-election-facebook.html) Follow us on Facebook or Twitter or [sign up for our mailing list to get information on my upcoming book, Brexit: The Establishment Civil War](http://http://www.establishmentcivilwar.co.uk/). Music from Just Jim - [https://soundcloud.com/justjim](http://https://soundcloud.com/justjim)