Foreign adversaries are engaged in an ongoing information warfare campaign that poses a significant threat to American democracy.  Countermeasures adopted by social media companies are helpful first steps. However, the threat is too serious to rely exclusively on industry self-regulation. Federal legislation is needed to preserve the integrity of our democratic system. This article proposes a detailed legislative scheme that, if implemented, would make it much more difficult for foreign agents to use social media to manipulate U.S. electoral processes.

David Sloss is the John A. and Elizabeth H. Sutro Professor of Law at Santa Clara University School of Law.  He is the author of The Death of Treaty Supremacy: An Invisible Constitutional Change (OUP 2016), co-editor of International Law in the U.S. Supreme Court: Continuity and Change (CUP 2011), and editor of The Role of Domestic Courts in Treaty Enforcement: A Comparative Study (CUP 2009). The two most recent books received book awards from the American Society of International Law. Before his academic career, Sloss spent nine years in the federal government, where he worked on East-West arms control negotiations and nuclear proliferation issues.

Event co-sponsors:
Fordham Law School
New York City Bar Association’s Task Force on National Security and the Rule of Law