election interference
Corrupting democratic processes
Election interference refers to deliberate efforts by foreign governments, organizations, or individuals to influence the outcome of another country's elections.
Methods include spreading disinformation, hacking political organizations, manipulating social media, or attacking voting infrastructure.
The term gained prominence after Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election: Congressional hearings examined the scope of election interference.
Distinguished from domestic political tactics, which may be unethical but are not typically called interference.
- espionageCovert intelligence gathering
- disinformationIntentional deceptive falsehoods
- propagandaBiased information for influence
- deepfakesAI-manipulated fake media
- fake newsIntentionally deceptive media content
manipulation · cybersecurity · voter suppression · voter rolls · swing state · astroturfing · dark money · troll farms · ballot stuffing · phishing · bribe · misinformation campaigns · document · data breaches · intimidation tactics · bad actors · cyber · malware
- election fraudvoter fraud, ballot stuffing, ballot tampering, vote rigging, rigged elections
- International CrisesCuban Missile Crisis, Iran hostage crisis, hostage crisis, Suez Crisis, Bay of Pigs
- political scandalsWatergate, Iran-Contra, Whitewater, Teapot Dome, coverup
- tech scandalsCambridge Analytica, Theranos, data breaches, privacy violations, data breach
- Cyberwarfarecyberattack, cyber warfare, cyberwar, cyber attack, cyber weapons
- online manipulationastroturfing, bots, bot farms, disinformation, fake news
election interferenceelection security
Protecting voting from interference
ballot security · voter protection · election integrity · electoral integrity · election monitoring
election interferencenon-interference
Abstaining from meddling
national sovereignty · self-determination · non-intervention · political independence · self-governance
election interferencedemocratic process
Collective decision-making by citizens
democratic participation · civic engagement · democratic norms · rule of law · democratic governance