Tech Companies Meet in San Francisco to Coordinate Election Protection

  • Variety | by: Janko Roettgers |
  • 08/24/2018 12:00 AM
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Representatives from some of the technology industry’s biggest companies have scheduled an internal meeting in San Francisco this Friday to coordinate their efforts against online election interference, according to a Buzzfeed report. The meeting has been organized by Facebook, with Twitter hosting the group at its San Francisco headquarters, according to the report.

Other companies invited to participate include Microsoft, Snapchat and Google. An invitation email of the gathering was sent by Nathaniel Gleicher, who had joined Facebook as the company’s new head of cybersecurity policy earlier this year.

In the email, which was leaked to Buzzfeed, Gleicher wrote that the meeting would be used to share how each company was preparing for the 2018 election. “We have been looking to schedule a follow-on discussion to our industry conversation about information operations, election protection, and the work we are all doing to tackle these challenges,” Gleicher wrote.

The meeting follows a similar gathering by tech companies earlier this year that was also attended by representatives of the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, according to Buzzfeed. This time around, the government is not expected to attend.

Companies like Twitter, Facebook and Google are increasingly acting in coordination with each other to fight foreign interference campaigns. Just this week, Google, Twitter and Facebook all took down accounts linked to Iran that were trying to covertly sway public opinion on subjects ranging from the Middle East to British and U.S. politics.
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