Democracy & Elections

The Lawfare Podcast: Joshua R. Fattal on Fighting Disinformation with the Foreign Agents Registration Act

Jen Patja, Evelyn Douek, Quinta Jurecic, Joshua R. Fattal
Thursday, March 12, 2020, 12:00 PM
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This week on Lawfare’s Arbiters of Truth series on disinformation, Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic spoke with Joshua R. Fattal about a fascinating law review article he’s written: “FARA on Facebook: Modernizing the Foreign Agents Registration Act to Address Propagandists on Social Media.” The Foreign Agents Registration Act, known as FARA, is an American law that requires lobbyists for foreign entities to register with the Justice Department. It made the headlines when Special Counsel Robert Mueller claimed that Russians spreading social media disinformation around the 2016 election failed to register under the law. Josh argues that Mueller’s indictments represent an innovative new use of FARA—and he suggests that the law could offer a mechanism for the U.S. government to address disinformation campaigns.


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Jen Patja

Jen Patja

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Jen Patja is the editor and producer of the Lawfare Podcast and Rational Security. She currently serves as the Co-Executive Director of Virginia Civics, a nonprofit organization that empowers the next generation of leaders in Virginia by promoting constitutional literacy, critical thinking, and civic engagement. She is the former Deputy Director of the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier and has been a freelance editor for over 20 years.
Evelyn Douek

Evelyn Douek

@evelyndouek
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Evelyn Douek is an Assistant Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and Senior Research Fellow at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. She holds a doctorate from Harvard Law School on the topic of private and public regulation of online speech. Prior to attending HLS, Evelyn was an Associate (clerk) to the Honourable Chief Justice Susan Kiefel of the High Court of Australia. She received her LL.B. from UNSW Sydney, where she was Executive Editor of the UNSW Law Journal.
Quinta Jurecic

Quinta Jurecic

@qjurecic
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Quinta Jurecic is a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a senior editor at Lawfare. She previously served as Lawfare's managing editor and as an editorial writer for the Washington Post.
Joshua R. Fattal

Joshua R. Fattal

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Joshua R. Fattal is clerking on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Previously, he served as an Attorney Advisor in the Intelligence Law Division of the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, where he worked on matters pertaining to the sharing, analysis, and retention of national and homeland security information at scale. He received his J.D., cum laude, from New York University School of Law, which he attended as an ASPIRE Cybersecurity Scholar, and a B.A. in History, magna cum laude, from Columbia University. His posts represent the views of the author alone.

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