We have learned a lot about online disinformation — and we are doing nothing

We have learned a lot about online disinformation — and we are doing nothing.  For these same distorting techniques are still in operation. They will affect the midterm elections. They continue to shape political debate in many countries around the world. They are being used not just by Russians, but by people in the countries they seek to influence. These campaigners, often hiding behind fake accounts, continue to act with impunity, promoting false narratives and relying on the main platforms — Facebook, Twitter, Google, and especially YouTube — to amplify their messages.

After the midterm elections are over, we need an informed national debate, a Congressional investigation that looks into all of the possible options, as well as a commitment by political leaders to take control of the information anarchy that will eventually consume them all.

[Anne Applebaum is a Washington Post columnist. She is also a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and a professor of practice at the London School of Economics.]