FBI to web giants: watch out for foreign disinformation

by Renato Caputo*

Big news: The FBI has resumed reporting foreign disinformation to social media giants after a legal dispute had caused a halt to such communications since last year.

The U.S. Department of Justice has now established new guidelines for agents to share reports with major platforms such as Facebook, X e YouTube to combat the spread of misinformation e influenza campaigns ahead of the upcoming presidential election.

Recent actions taken by companies show that this coordination is already making a difference.

Last year, contacts between investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and social media companies had been suspended because of a legal dispute accusing the U.S. Administration of censorship.

However, the Supreme Court recently dismissed this charge, allowing the U.S. government to resume communications with technology platforms. The Court's decision in Murthy v. II Missouri made it clear that the First Amendment does not limit the government's ability to fight the misinformation online.

This recent development is a significant step in ongoing efforts to prevent foreign disinformation from conditioning public opinion and affecting the November elections.

From this link https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-411_3dq3.pdf you can download the Supreme Court's decision in Murthy vs.Missouri

*Prof.Renato Caputo.University lecturer in International Law and Security Regulations (IUS/13), is a member of the Madrid College of Lawyers. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Policy Institute in Washington (USA) and a member of the Advisory Board of the European Intelligence Academy in Athens (Greece).