Russia used fake social media posts as part of its effort to interfere in the 2016 election, prompting warnings that we shouldn’t believe everything we read online.
In 2020, we shouldn’t believe everything we see and hear online, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the ranking member of the intelligence committee, told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday.
“We saw in 2016 the creation of fake accounts where somebody says they’re Mike but it’s actually Ivan in St. Petersburg,” Warner said.
“In 2020, we’re going to see what’s called deep fake technology, where you may have news figures or political figures, their faces appear, their voices sounding like the actual person, with that all being a fake, contrived video livestreaming, coming at you from your favorite account.”
Warner was asked about the possibility that hostile nations could change actual vote counts in the next presidential election:
“Well, I think there is that possibility,” he replied. “What I think is a greater possibility is not getting in, necessarily, and altering the vote count. But if you go upstream into some of these companies, and three companies control about 90 percent of the voter files, if you simply were to change a few thousand folks from one precinct to another, you wouldn’t have to change the vote file.
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today!