The Algorithm Election
A foreign state secretly acquires controlling interest in a dominant social platform and manipulates its algorithm to swing a G7 nation's election.
Three weeks before a presidential election, a whistleblower reveals that a hostile foreign intelligence service has secretly acquired majority ownership of the country's most popular social media platform through a chain of shell companies. Forensic analysis confirms the platform's algorithm has been systematically suppressing one candidate's content and amplifying the other's for 18 months.
You are the Director of the FBI
The Situation Room
>The favored candidate is currently leading in polls by 8 points — but the algorithm manipulation is estimated to account for 5-6 points of that lead.
>The platform has 200 million daily active users in the country. Shutting it down three weeks before an election would trigger a First Amendment firestorm.
>The hostile nation's ambassador denies everything and threatens "severe consequences" if the platform is seized.
Internal Briefing Notes
• CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment) can retroactively review and unwind foreign acquisitions that threaten national security.
• The First Amendment protects platform speech, but foreign-directed information operations may fall under espionage statutes.
• There is no legal precedent for postponing a presidential election under any circumstances.
Escalation Window
Reveal each phase to see how the situation deteriorates.
An election is three weeks away and a hostile state controls the information environment. What do you do?
Choose your response. There are no good options.
Take control of the platform and reset the algorithm. You save the election's integrity but set the precedent that the government can seize media companies.
Reveal the foreign ownership and let voters decide. The damage is already done — 18 months of manipulation can't be undone in 3 weeks.
Court-order the platform to run a neutral algorithm. Implementation takes weeks, the election is in days, and you've never legally defined what "neutral" means.
Related Entities
Explore the institutions, countries, and actors involved in this scenario.
United States
Federal presidential republic and the world's largest economy, with power divided among the presidency, Congress, the states, and the federal courts. U.S. politics is highly polarized, two-party dominated, and globally consequential because decisions made in Washington shape finance, trade, security alliances, technology regulation, and military power far beyond U.S. borders.
People's Republic of China
Single-party socialist state led by the Chinese Communist Party and one of the two central poles of global power. China combines party control, state planning capacity, export-industrial strength, technological ambition, and a vast domestic market, making its political decisions consequential for global trade, security, supply chains, and regional power balances.
United Kingdom
Constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. Comprises England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Scenario Lab Feedback