“And I will close by reiterating the central allegation of our indictments, that there were multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election,” Special Council Robert Mueller said in his now history-making report. “And that allegation deserves the attention of every American.”

In an analysis of the report by Lisa Desjardins, with PBS.org, Mueller said Russia attacked in two ways: “[Mueller] writes, first, that it carried out a social media campaign that favored presidential candidate Donald J. Trump. And, second, a Russian intelligence service conducted computer intrusion operations against entities, employees and volunteers working on the Clinton campaign. Translation: Russia used the Internet to fool American voters and hackers to attack Democratic computer networks.”

William Brangham, also with PBS.org, continued: “According to Mueller’s report, the Russian campaign began in mid-2014. That’s when the employees of what’s known as the Internet Research Agency first came to the U.S. to gather the material that they would later use in their elaborate social media postings.”

The IRA’s headquarters is in St. Petersburg, Russia, Brangham said.

“The Russians created fake hashtags, like #KidsForTrump,” Brangham said. “They bought thousands of online ads. They impersonated U.S. citizens and set up political rallies, like a 2015 Confederate rally in Houston. They made posters like this one of ‘Miners for Trump’ to promote a rally in Pittsburgh in 2016.”

“Next, the report looks at Russia’s hacking, concluding Russia’s largest foreign intelligence service, known as the GRU, attacked the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign,” Desjardins said. “The investigation found the GRU stole the password and identities of network administrators and used those to get access to Democratic files.”

The report said, “The GRU’s operations extended beyond stealing material and included releasing documents stolen from the Clinton campaign and its supporters.”

“Mueller says the Russians directly targeted our election systems,” Brangham said. “They used cyberattacks against private technology firms that make election software, as well as officials in several states and county governments.”

The 448-page Mueller report contains much more. However, lately, many news agencies have been reporting on deepfakes and their potential impact on the 2020 election.

A deepfake is a way to manipulate video and audio clips of individuals saying or doing things they haven’t said or done.

In May, there was a video clip of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on social media in which she appears to be impaired, according to CBS News. It was the first time I had ever heard of deepfakes.

The clip had more than 2.5 million views on Facebook.

Hany Farid, a professor of computer science at the University of California Berkeley, told CBS News’ Jeff Pegues this video is just the tip of the iceberg of how videos and images can be manipulated.

Think about it. What if someone manipulates a candidate’s video to say they are against a certain group, religious affiliation, race or sexual affiliation?

What if someone manipulates video of President Donald Trump to announce he has given the orders for the attack of a certain country when he really has not?

What if, on the day before an election, a candidate is accused of doing something by way of a manipulated video?

There are enough angry people in this world to do just this.

In my time, I have never seen a country so divided. This manipulation could just make the division worse.

So what can be done to halt this manipulation?

I remember the trust the nation put on CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite Jr. for 19 years. He was often cited as “the most trusted man in America” after being so named in an opinion poll.

Do we have the same trust now to know that what we see on the evening news is accurate and true?

I would say we do not trust what we see on the Internet - and that is how it should be. And now I question almost everything I see on the evening news, knowing video can be manipulated.

It doesn’t matter if you are a Republican or a Democrat; we should all be calling our Congress members and demanding legislation be introduced to stop the interference into our elections.

Until such legislation is introduced and passed, we will not be able to trust anything we see on television or on the Internet regarding what candidates have or have not said. The only way we will be able to know for sure will be to attend town hall events where candidates come to our area and give their vision for the future.

If this happened in the 2016 election, you can be sure it is going to happen in the 2020 election.

We just have to be smarter than the manipulators.

Debbie Galbraith

editor

East Penn Press

Salisbury Press