When I first traveled to the Islamic Republic of Iran 25 years ago, I contacted Voice of America to find the schedule for their regional news broadcast. The service refused to provide it: For an American to listen to VOA, even in Tehran, would be a violation of the Smith-Mundt Act.
Congress intended the 1948 Act to professionalize and regulate American broadcasting against the backdrop of the nascent Cold War. Amendments tweaked the law with time, and, by the Nixon administration, the dominant understanding was the act should shield domestic audiences from accessing U.S.-funded propaganda. In the age of the internet, however, the strict interpretation I encountered in 1996 was increasingly tendentious. Hence, in 2012, Congress lifted the “propaganda ban” in order to ensure that U.S. broadcasters and the government more broadly could engage on social media and the internet.
Perhaps it is time for Congress and the State Department to tweak the act once again.
In 2021, troll armies flood the internet, poison discourse, harass others, and fan extremism. Many countries that the United States funds actively promote trolls, some of whom project the crudest anti-American, antisemitic, and racist rhetoric. Turkey, for example, does so without shame. In 2015, Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended the wedding of a prominent Turkish social media troll. Last year, Twitter removed 7,000 “fake and compromised” accounts linked to Erdogan’s AK party. A survey of Twitter accounts suggests that was just the tip of the iceberg. Meanwhile, over the last five years, the U.S. disbursed almost $300 million to Turkey in nonmilitary assistance. None of that went directly into the Turkish press — Turkey has one of the world’s worst press freedom records — but money is fungible.
The same pattern holds true for Ethiopia and Somalia. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed co-founded the Ethiopian Information Network Security Agency that often used electronic means and cyberoperations to spy on dissidents and journalists. Today, anyone critical of Abiy’s reign will find themselves besieged with hundreds of pro-Abiy accounts, most obvious trolls and bots. That costs money that, in theory, Ethiopia does not itself have. After all, in recent years, Ethiopia has been among Washington’s top recipients of economic assistance. If Abiy needs cash so desperately, it is curious how he finds millions to fund trolls unless, perhaps, U.S. donations allow him to shift some cash into discretionary accounts.
Somalia is as crude. The country has received billions of dollars from the U.S. and international community, yet Fahad Yasin, the country’s intelligence chief, funds a Twitter army and, according to Somali parliamentarians, regularly pays relatives and students to shower opponents with opprobrium. The pace of Somali trolling has only increased since President Mohamed Farmaajo’s refusal to step down at the end of his term put him into conflict with much of the international community. The list could be much longer: Eritrea, Pakistan, and Azerbaijan each embracing trolling and fraudulent bots to promote their message.
The problem is not simply that these countries fund trolls; it is a common tactic of dictatorships. Rather, the issue is that many of the states that receive American largesse turn around and target Americans with 21st-century propaganda, disseminated by troll or bot. There is little Washington can do about Russian, Iranian, or Chinese trolling, but the same is not true with recipients of U.S. assistance. U.S. officials may condemn such trolling but, if Congress is serious about a no-nonsense approach to such tactics, the promotion of reality and countering propaganda targeting Americans, it is time to amend Smith-Mundt Act to prohibit U.S. funds from supporting any regime that the State Department cannot certify to be free from any investment in trolls or propaganda targeting Americans.
Let Erdogan, Abiy, and Farmaajo choose what is more important: targeting critics or development. That should be an either/or choice, not both.
Michael Rubin (@Mrubin1971) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
