Defending Democracies via Cybernorms

Abstract

This chapter surveys the most prominent existing regulatory mechanisms for combating foreign election interference today — international law, domestic law, and technical measures — and explains the gaps and challenges each faces. To supplement these responses, we call for democracies to develop and apply cyber-norms — socially constructed shared expectations of appropriate behavior for members of a particular community. The chapter’s central claim is that States and other stakeholders should affirmatively construct international norms tailored to the challenges of online foreign election interference, including delineating “out-of-bounds” behavior vis-a-vis foreign elections and setting expectations for assistance or cooperation when such behavior occurs. The authors acknowledge cyber-norms are not a salve for all wounds. Yet, they build off new norm candidates from the G7 and the Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace to highlight how cyber-norms can provide critical tools to a broad, multi-layered, and multi-disciplinary response to the threat of foreign election interference.