How Foreign Influence on Social Media Affects Elections

CHARLOTTE, NC — Facebook said this week that it has detected and removed 32 pages and fake accounts that it identified – built to sow divisions in the U.S. and potentially disrupt the midterm elections. Earlier, Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri announced thwarted attempts to break into her office’s accounts.

The tactics are similar to those our intelligence agencies say have been used by Russia to influence elections in the U.S. and other countries.

Wednesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee has scheduled an open meeting to examine how foreign intelligence agencies conduct influence campaigns in the U.S. through various social media platforms.

Opinion: We Just Can’t Shake That Old-Time Religion

“Bless your heart” is a phrase I got to know well when I moved from the Northeast to the South several years ago. Though often spoken in soft, sympathetic tones, there was nothing blessed about the sentiment. And when those three syllables were delivered in an email, usually after I wrote a column a reader did not like, they landed like a punch to the gut.

Oddly enough, it was commentary on faith and values that elicited quite a bit of high dudgeon, topped only by the historically reliable topic of race, which, like religion, carries the taint of a North versus South, “them” against “us” spiritual split.

It was no surprise, then, that one of the most recent dust-ups in the sandbox called the U.S. House of Representatives was over religion — most specifically, the faith, message and suitability of the chamber’s chaplain — or that it, too, had its share of regional side-choosing.

Opinion: When the World of Politics Collides With the Real One

It is months away from November 2018, but that doesn’t stop predictions not only for the midterms but also for President Donald Trump’s re-election chances in 2020. But while the world of politics is preoccupied with whether a blue wave is inevitable or a figment of hopeful Democrats’ imagination, events outside the bubble might shift the electorate in unpredictable ways.

Opinion: Will African-American Female Leadership Move Into the Spotlight in 2018?

It’s kind of a pattern. In tangled tales of the intersection of racism and sexism, women of color are depended upon for the hard work but pushed aside for recognition.