Bipartisan report warns against future democracy interference

A bipartisan report released Tuesday is warning American institutions about future meddling in the U.S. democratic system, following the 2016 election.

And it’s not only the U.S. government that can do something about it — according to a news release on the report by the Alliance for Securing Democracy. The group calls on the tech and media worlds to also take “immediate actions.”

The Alliance for Securing Democracy, an initiative through the nonpartisan German Marshall Fund, “develops comprehensive strategies to defend against, deter, and raise the costs on Russian and other state actors’ efforts to undermine democracy and democratic institutions,” according to its website.

Its latest report outlines several suggestions for deterring attacks against the U.S., including, “Separate politics from efforts to unmask and respond to foreign operations against the U.S. electoral process,” and “Build a more constructive public-private partnership to identify and address emerging tech threats.”

The report is set to be announced at an event Tuesday with Minnesota’s Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and former acting CIA Director Michael Morell, according to a press release.

“The Kremlin’s playbook takes advantage of vulnerabilities and weaknesses in the societies it targets. In the United States, the vulnerabilities that the Kremlin exploited included operational and structural weaknesses in governance, legislation, and corporate policy. But they also exploited existing institutional and societal shortcomings in America,” the Alliance for Securing Democracy report said.

The U.S. intelligence community concluded that Russia attempted to interfere in the U.S. 2016 election, and there have been several probes to look into the matter.

This includes a special counsel investigation run by Robert Mueller, which is investigating any potential ties between Trump campaign associates and the Kremlin.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion.