Allegations of Russian and Iranian interference in the upcoming American presidential election reveal the vulnerability of domestic politics to external digital manipulation. While most citizens of any country would react with an instinctive rejection of attempts by foreigners to chart their political future, the lines are drawn less clearly when it comes to domestic sources of interference that employ the anonymous resources of the Internet to nefarious ends. When even a mature democracy such as the United States is far from being immune to misinformation and disinformation campaigns by disgruntled citizens or vested-interest groups, the question then is what can nations do to prevent, or at least to blunt, malevolent domestic digital acts from undermining the electoral legitimacy of their own democracies.

Several egregious cases of attempts to frighten, divide or otherwise manipulate public opinion have been documented in the US. Facebook posts warned voters falsely that their ballots would become invalid if a poll worker put a mark on it. A tweet said that Democrats would vote on Nov 3 - the actual polling date - and Republicans would vote the day after because of Covid-19 restrictions. It was also claimed that a person could go online and change votes. Such disingenuous attempts are the online version of fake news campaigns using other media - such as robocalls made to several thousand minority voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and New York which tried to dissuade them from voting by mail because it apparently could endanger the privacy of their personal information.