Comment by Mark Warner

While imperfect and no substitute for comprehensive federal legislation, these voluntary efforts, including the Coalition for Content Provenance & Authenticity and the Tech Accord to Combat Deceptive Use of AI in 2024 Elections, complemented by a patchwork of state laws, represent some of the only meaningful interventions to address media manipulation-based threats ahead of the 2026 U.S. midterm elections. [...] Particularly against the backdrop of an abrupt pullback in federal resources, an effective multi-stakeholder approach is needed to ensure that industry, state and local governments, and civil society adequately anticipate – and counteract – media manipulation techniques that cause harm to vulnerable communities, public trust, and democratic institutions.