
We are taking new steps against broadening threats to democracy - ccnafr
https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2018/08/20/we-are-taking-new-steps-against-broadening-threats-to-democracy/
======
EDSP
"...It’s clear that democracies around the world are under attack..." Yup, and
it's very clear which country is responsible for performing most of those
attacks. Is Microsoft offering any solutions to protect the rest of the world
too?: "...the country intervening in most foreign elections is the United
States with 81 interventions, followed by Russia (including the former Soviet
Union) with 36 interventions from 1946 to 2000 - an average of once in every
nine competitive elections..."
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_electoral_intervention](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_electoral_intervention)

~~~
kthejoker2
Really? Going to hold actions taken over 70 years ago against the US of today?

~~~
EDSP
The research results quoted contain election interferences between 1945 and
2000. Since then it has only become far worse. So no, it's not been 70 years
ago since the last election interference conducted by the US and yes I am
holding this kind of action against the United States and so should you:
[https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-interfered-in-elections-
of-...](https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-interfered-in-elections-of-at-
least-85-countries-worldwide-since-1945/5601481)

~~~
lern_too_spel
Your link provides the following to support your claim: "That’s just till
2000! The US has gone nuts since then."

Do you really accept that as proof?

~~~
EDSP
It also contains "...Since 2000, the U.S. has attempted to sway elections in
Ukraine, Kenya, Lebanon, and Afghanistan, among others..." \- Ukraine:
[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/15/john-mccain-
uk...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/15/john-mccain-ukraine-
protests-support-just-cause) \- Kenia: [https://www.globalresearch.ca/foreign-
interference-in-kenyas...](https://www.globalresearch.ca/foreign-interference-
in-kenyas-elections/5326282) \- Lebanon:
[https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09STATE35241_a.html](https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09STATE35241_a.html)

More links with detailed information:
[https://www.forbes.com/sites/dougbandow/2017/08/01/interferi...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/dougbandow/2017/08/01/interfering-
in-democratic-elections-russia-against-the-u-s-but-u-s-against-the-
world/#e96e626644cd)

[https://www.cato.org/blog/hypocrisy-election-
interference](https://www.cato.org/blog/hypocrisy-election-interference)
"...More recently there have been Macedonia, Serbia, Albania, Bosnia, Ukraine,
Russia (especially Yeltsin’s 1995-96 campaign), Algeria, Lebanon, Palestine,
Cyprus, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Yemen, Vietnam,
Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Congo and several other countries
in Africa, and, in Latin America, every country multiple times including
within the last fifteen years Haiti, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Panama,
Nicaragua, Venezuela, Columbia, Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, and
Argentina. Brenner’s list is an ongoing project. It does not include Canada,
and just possibly there are some Canadians who might find that omission to be
unjustified..."

Extensive source of information on US election interferences:
[https://books.google.nl/books/about/Diplomatic_Interference_...](https://books.google.nl/books/about/Diplomatic_Interference_and_the_Law.html?hl=nl&id=MlS3CwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y)

[https://consortiumnews.com/tag/american-
exceptionalism](https://consortiumnews.com/tag/american-exceptionalism)

[https://zodml.org/sites/default/files/%5BJoseph_Smith%5D_The...](https://zodml.org/sites/default/files/%5BJoseph_Smith%5D_The_United_States_and_Latin_America.pdf)

------
iamleppert
This is nothing more than a thinly veiled Office 365 marketing ploy.

If their 2FA is anything like what they’ve done with Azure I wouldn’t be
holding my breath. Microsoft is barely out on parole in my eyes from their
horrid security and privacy track record, and has shown many signs of
recividism to be engaging in this charade.

~~~
vmateixeira
They're session security is hilarious.. a session token is still valid for at
least 6 hours after logging out.. even after their humorous advice to close
all browser tabs (which as expected doesn't do anything server side)

------
polack
"Last week, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) successfully executed a
court order to disrupt and transfer control of six internet domains..."

What does this mean? Was the domains hosted on Microsoft DNS servers? Or did
Microsoft get a court order to go after domains hosted by other companies? I'm
probably missing something, but isn't that the job of the police?

~~~
lern_too_spel
The article says what it means and lists the six domain names. The domain
names look like domain names owned by Microsoft and its customers, so
Microsoft can take them down for impersonation.

~~~
polack
Not all of them where impersonating Microsoft domains. Still can't understand
how Microsoft managed to take these domains down if they weren't hosted by
Microsoft in the first place.

------
thisisit
You have to hand it to Microsoft's PR machinery. While companies have been
offering similar services, not many wouldn't have tried to link it to
"broadening threats to democracy".

~~~
hkai
I like how they talk about democracy and at the same time are probably the
most cooperative large tech company when it comes to releasing customer info
to authoritarian governments.

------
yodon
Fascinating. As of this moment, this page seems to have far more virulent
anti-Microsoft sentiment than I can recall seeing in any HN posting recently.
It's almost as if people are blaming the messenger for some reason.

~~~
eksemplar
I think HN has had its eternal September over the summer. A significant
portion of comments on a lot of threads are becoming ever more political.

Which is a little annoying as HN was one of the few places that hadn’t been
infected by American politics. I’m Scandinavian, I don’t much care about the
war between red and blue.

------
singularity2001
By subverting privacy Microsoft is a threat to democracy itself.

~~~
lern_too_spel
This is a non sequitur. It is not clear that privacy (specifically privacy of
data on Microsoft systems from court order, if that's what you mean) is
necessary for democracy. On the other hand, the ability to unmask people who
are subverting elections is useful for democracy.

~~~
ionised
> It is not clear that privacy (specifically privacy of data on Microsoft
> systems from court order, if that's what you mean) is necessary for
> democracy.

How would democracy ever work if people had no privacy?

~~~
lern_too_spel
How would democracy ever work if people had absolute privacy? It wouldn't, but
that isn't what we were discussing either.

The claim under discussion is that the privacy loss that is affected by
Microsoft's privacy policy is detrimental to democracy. That claim was
presented without any support.

------
zaarn
It's seems this is quite an acceptable plan to move forward. MS doesn't seem
to plan to intervene in local politics, merely shield against foreign politics
intervening in local politics. Especially when you offer those services in
foreign countries, the other players seem to fail spectacularly.

~~~
ionised
Microsoft gets involved in domestic politics all the time.

------
pjc50
This is great, but I'd like to know if it extends in the other direction; one
of the great ironies of the Trump Administration has been the wrecking of the
State Department, who along with the CIA have had a habit of getting involved
in the elections of other countries. Up to and including replacing
democratically-elected socialists with military dictatorships.

~~~
curiousgal
I think another proof that the U.S. is not about spreading democracy but only
seeking it's economical interested is illustrated by Tunisia. The tiny nation
is the only democracy in North Africa and is struggling economically. If the
U.S. were adamant about supporting democracy, the obvious thing to do is to
ensure that Tunisia succeeds in becoming a full democracy.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index#/media/File%...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index#/media/File%3ADemocracy_Index_2017.svg)

------
kerng
Microsoft has a Digital Crimes Unit? Is that like a police/vigilante enforcing
function? Curious to learn more - seems unique, or is this common with big
companies?

~~~
intern4tional
Every big company has a forensics / investigations team. This team will
interface with law enforcement as necessary.

This is common.

------
chvid
Because who better than Microsoft to save our democracy?

I can't think of anyone ... oh wait ... I can! What about Apple and Google?
Yes. Please. Apple, Microsoft and Google - together - save our democracies!
You are the only ones who can.

Thank you.

\-- the little people

~~~
v_lisivka
You forgot about FakeBook. In my country, FaceBook bans users if their posts
mention certain politic (Henadii Moskal). For the sake of democracy, of
course.

------
montenegrohugo
"It’s clear that democracies around the world are under attack. Foreign
entities are launching cyber strikes to disrupt elections and sow discord.
Unfortunately, the internet has become an avenue for some governments to steal
and leak information, spread disinformation, and probe and potentially attempt
to tamper with voting systems. We saw this during the United States general
election in 2016, last May during the French presidential election, and now in
a broadening way as Americans are preparing for the November midterm
elections."

Now that is a strong first paragraph. Microsoft is essentially saying that
Russia did indeed influence the 2016 election (presumably in collaboration
with Trump). I know the facts are public, but I did not expect such a big
company to take such a political position.

~~~
lern_too_spel
It's not a political position. It's a statement of fact (excluding your
presumption, which wasn't implied in the article) supported by both national
political parties and the sitting president.
[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/17/us/politics/trump-
putin-r...](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/17/us/politics/trump-putin-
russia.html)

~~~
dragonwriter
> It's not a political position.

It is indeed a political position.

> It's a statement of fact

Sure, but it's still in the domain of politics.

------
jerold
There is a lot of broadening going on

------
vixen99
Microsoft, the self-appointed unelected guardians of democracy who will
privately decide what is and what is not a threat.

------
eahman02
I thought this was about the censorship of Gab posts that occurred a few days
ago which they ordered.

------
rataata_jr
Please Microsoft, I accept thee as my lord and savior. Please guide me what to
think! /s

------
mtgx
I like most of Brad Smith's initiatives, but I hope the end-goal here isn't to
just put more Windows on voting machines. Because the last voting machines
that got Windows are some of the least secure devices around, many of them
still unpatched for many years.

I know that's not _all_ Microsoft's fault, but if that's their "solution" or
others similar to it, then we'd be better off without them in the long term.

And that's without even mentioning the whole issue around proprietary software
being used in the voting process (even if it's just for _counting votes_ ,
because nobody ever checks or audits those after the fact anyways, and the
numbers are always taken at face value).

~~~
lern_too_spel
This has nothing to do with voting machines. It's the public announcement of
Microsoft's equivalent to
[https://landing.google.com/advancedprotection/](https://landing.google.com/advancedprotection/)

------
kls
I find it peculiar that this announcement comes out following the
establishment of a link between Soros funded orgs and the facebook/twitter/et.
al censorship. Seems fairly coincidental.

I an not fond of the idea of tech companies electing themselves guardians of
democracy. In fact I think there should be a total ban on corporations
involvement in politics.

