'Most perilous moment will come before ... ': Microsoft president's warning about disinformation in US election

Microsoft President Brad Smith warned lawmakers on Wednesday that the most vulnerable time for disinformation in the upcoming US elections will be within 48 hours before Election Day, scheduled for 5 November. Speaking before the US Senate Intelligence Committee, Smith talked about the urgency to prepare for potential threats during this critical period.

"There is a potential moment of peril ahead. Today we are 48 days away from the election... the most perilous moment will come, I think, 48 hours before the election," Smith said.

Senator Mark Warner agreed, pointing out that the time following the closing of polls could also be significant, especially if the election results are close.

Tech executives from Google and Meta participated in the hearing, where concerns about disinformation tactics were raised. Elon Musk's platform X declined to testify, citing the resignation of their invited witness, while TikTok was not present at all.

Smith referred to a troubling incident from Slovakia’s 2023 election, where a fake voice recording of a party leader discussing election rigging went viral just before the vote. This example illustrated the risks posed by false information in the lead-up to elections.

Senator Warner pressed the tech companies on their measures to combat disinformation, asking for data on the reach of false content. The companies discussed their plans to use labelling and watermarking to reduce the risks associated with deepfakes, promising to apply these measures if misleading content about political candidates surfaces.

' Iranian hackers targeted Biden with stolen data'
Smith's warning came merely hours before the FBI that Iranian hackers tried to interfere in the 2024 election by sending unsolicited emails to associates of President Joe Biden’s campaign, containing excerpts from stolen materials linked to former President Donald Trump. No recipients reportedly responded to these emails. Kamala Harris' campaign condemned the emails as “unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity,” noting they were mostly dismissed as spam. Harris’s spokesperson, Morgan Finkelstein, stated, “We condemn in the strongest terms any effort by foreign actors to interfere in US elections.”