Representative Will Hurd (R-TX), a member of the House Intelligence and Homeland Security Committees, tells The Hill not enough is being done to counter Russia's targeted disinformation campaign, and no one should believe the Kremlin wants to work with the United States:
“It is very clear that there was a coordinated attempt by the Russian government to sow distrust in our elections and to manipulate our elections and to erode that trust,” Hurd said.
“Thinking that Vladimir Putin specifically is going to be an ally on issues in the Middle East or Asia is the equivalent of thinking the Iranians are going to stop their pursuit of nuclear weapons,” Hurd said. “It is a wrong worldview, in my opinion.”
Hurd explains "rooting out Russian propaganda is a 'whole-of-society problem' — one that warrants action from government and private entities, including news agencies and social media firms." However, he does not support new regulation like the recently introduced Honest Ads Act because he believes it would put social media companies into a regulatory or law enforcement role. Instead, we wants to see better implementation of laws already on the books:
“Rules like the Federal Election Regulation Act, McCain-Feingold — all the legislation and laws that govern political advertising should be applied uniformly to all mediums of advertising,” Hurd said. “So, I don’t support creating legislation when you already have tools to use and if you need to enforce it, we should enforce it properly.”
At the same time, Hurd knows Putin's next attack is just a matter of time:
The Texas congressman believes that, at the moment, the U.S. isn’t ready for that next salvo of election interference by Russia. Still, Hurd says he’s optimistic that the country can be down the line.
He credited the Department of Homeland Security in particular for what it is doing to engage states to prevent hackers from infiltrating digital voting infrastructure, but he said more needs to be done to counteract propaganda disseminated on social media.
GOP rep: We need a ‘counter’ to Russian disinformation (The Hill)