Senate Intelligence chair presses web domain companies to take action against Russian influence operations

Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) pressed a select group of domain registrars in the U.S. to address alleged abuse of their services by Russian influence operations during the 2024 election cycle.

Warner addressed his letter Thursday to a list of companies included in a Department of Justice (DOJ) affidavit last month.

“Information included in the affidavit supporting recent seizure of a number of these domains provides further indication of your industry’s apparent inattention to abuses by foreign actors engaged in covert influence,” Warner wrote to Namecheap, GoDaddy, Cloudflare, NewFold Digital, NameSilo and Verisign.

In his letter, the Virginia Democrat said registrars had provided services to “Doppelganger,” a Russian effort that created sites with slightly different web addresses that mimic U.S. news outlets and marketed pro-Russian narratives. It also created other media brands to funnel Russian content, according to the affidavit.

His request comes after the Biden administration condemned Russian efforts to influence the election, now less than two weeks away, and after DOJ seized 32 web domains that Russia has used for its influence campaign.

“In the context of the U.S. 2024 Presidential Election, the prospect of foreign actors impersonating state and local government websites — and seeding narratives related to election outcomes or electoral processes — is especially dire,” Warner wrote in the letter.

The senator urged registrars to take immediate action.

“In the interim, your company must take immediate steps to address the continued abuse of your services for foreign covert influence — particularly in the days preceding, and weeks immediately following, Election Day,” Warner said.

“With the prospect of a close election — and declassified intelligence demonstrating the past practice of foreign adversaries in spreading narratives that undermine confidence in election processes — Americans will be particularly reliant on media organizations and state and local government websites to provide authoritative and accurate election information,” the senator wrote.

He added that Congress “may need to evaluate legislative remedies that promote greater diligence across the global domain name ecosystem.”