The connections among foreign interference, disinformation and the health of our communities are very clear. The evidence around this is very clear. When people feel lonely and they do not have friends, family and people whom they feel connected with, they're much more vulnerable to foreign interference and manipulation.
It's common sense. The number of people reporting more loose friends, not necessarily close friends, is down dramatically over the last 10 years. COVID accelerated this. Those are the ones with whom we have informal conversations and connections. We hear different views, because maybe they're not in our bubble of particular political ideas about the world. When we lose those, we naturally lose the things that help us build our immune system against foreign interference. It makes us question some of this disinformation and makes us question some of the things we're seeing.
As Peter was suggesting before, we need to reinvest in this and understand that our investments in our community are related to the health of our democracy.