Foreign powers could be influencing American elections by funneling money over the Internet, according to a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission.
“I’m not trying to regulate the Internet,” FEC Commissioner Ann Ravel said at a Wednesday panel in New York City, according to a video that was posted late Sunday. “I’m trying to ensure that with the really positive aspects of technology and the Internet and the ability to get out to lots of people … We also have to have transparency. We have to make sure that the people who are funding campaigns are doing it legally. We don’t know that now.
“There’s all this money funneling through the Internet that probably comes from foreign sources, which is clearly illegal, and we don’t know it, and we don’t have the ability to get that information,” she added.
Ravel, a Democrat who last year filled her agency’s rotating chairmanship, has been criticized over claims that she supports regulating speech on the Internet. Ravel denied that was the case, and has said the issue is really about foreign money.
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The remarks comport with a recent refrain from Democrats on the commission that foreign money is making its way into American elections. Commissioner Ellen Weintraub warned during a meeting of the agency last week that the Islamic State could organize a political action committee unless action is taken.
“If there’s a zoning issue somewhere in the city of New York, do you want foreign interests to be telling you who can build something next to you?” Ravel said. “So that’s my issue with the Internet. I have never suggested one regulation in my entire time. I have said we need to talk to people, to technologists, to people who are thinking about this subject, and who understand that issues of voting and issues of campaign finance are going to the Internet.
“The campaigns are going to cell phones, they’re going to Facebook and Twitter. We need to rebuild and understand how we get information to people,” she added. “We have essentially a private, paid system of campaign finance where … smaller committees, yes, they disclose, candidates disclose, but the people who are spending all the money aren’t disclosing the way they should be.”
