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, the chapter calls for democracies to develop and apply cybernorms—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 challenge of online foreign election interference, including delineating “out-of-bounds” behavior vis-à-vis foreign elections and setting expectations for assistance or cooperation when such behavior occurs. The chapter acknowledges cybernorms 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 cybernorms can provide critical tools to a broad, multilayered, and multidisciplinary response to the threat of foreign election interference.