Foreign malign actors, specifically Russia, China, and Iran, are engaged in sustained efforts to harm the American information environment. By disseminating disinformation (defined as false, inaccurate, or misleading information intended to cause harm to a person, social group, organization, or state), these actors are increasingly able to deepen polarization and erode trust in democratic institutions in the United States. Social media platforms further intensify these dynamics, as they are designed to amplify emotionally charged or polarizing content, allowing false or misleading information to circulate more rapidly and widely than accurate reporting. Together, these core drivers contribute to the erosion of shared evidentiary standards, leading Americans to rely more often on identity-based cues when interpreting information. Worrisomely, as individuals assess information on this basis rather than through verifiability, they further weaken these standards and reinforce the conditions under which disinformation thrives.
These developments directly threaten U.S. domestic stability. The erosion of a shared reality and trust in democratic institutions constitutes one of the most severe disruptions that democracies can face, short of a great power war. This risk places U.S. policymakers in a constrained position: they must restore a resilient and democratic information ecosystem while remaining adherent to free speech protections. Additionally, the responsibility for addressing disinformation cannot be offloaded entirely to private corporations due to potential misaligned incentives. Against this backdrop, the U.S. must treat disinformation as a national resilience challenge that requires working with consumers, platforms, and overseas allies.
To rebuild trust in U.S. democratic institutions and improve the information ecosystem, the next presidential administration, in coordination with Congress, must adopt a comprehensive strategy with three distinct lines of effort. First, it should strengthen public resilience to disinformation. Second, it should implement targeted legislative reforms to improve the transparency and accountability required of social media platforms throughout the digital information ecosystem. Third, it should significantly expand U.S. public diplomacy to counter foreign malign influence overseas and enable the U.S. to “defend forward” in counter-disinformation operations.