An Inside Look At How Russia Plays The Propaganda Game (VIDEO)

Clint Watts testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee this week to explain exactly how Russia’s massive fake news propaganda operation works.

Watts’ resume is impressive. As a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, where he specializes in national security and Middle East affairs, and a senior fellow at George Washington University’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security, he is uniquely qualified to analyze Russia’s fake news propaganda machine.

So what did Watts discover? The Russian disinformation strategy employs five overlapping stages: create, push, share, discuss, and challenge.

In the creation stage, Russia uses official and unofficial channels to peddle its message. The stories address financial, political, and social issues that disparage Russian enemies or express support for Russian policy. Watts explains:

“This content, much of which is fake news or manipulated truths, provides information missiles tailored for specific portions of an electorate they seek to influence.”

The next stage, push, involves using bots and “sock puppets” – online personae created to deceive internet users – to promote the fake stories produced during the “creation” stage. To the untrained eye, these bots and fake users appear to be independent citizens from around the world.

The push then targets a more narrow subset of users through coordinated sharing of fake news. This stage targets individuals and groups online who are partial to a particular political perspective.

“This coordinated sharing seeks to further amplify and cement influential content and their themes amongst a targeted set of voters.”

Next, overtly pro-Russian users and covert accounts (sock puppets) discuss the message being peddled by Russian propagandists. This ostensibly authentic discussion lends credence to the Russian perspective.

Finally, Russian covert personae challenge individuals who disagree with their facts or narrative. This makes Russia fake news efforts unique among online propaganda operations, which often heckle opponents, but rarely do so for a prolonged period.

Russian fake news stories gain traction with American politicians and citizens already sympathetic toward Russian political positions, including opposition to NATO, the EU, and politicians deemed hostile to Russian interests.

Watts criticized America’s “ineffective” and “counterproductive” attempts to combat the cyber-enabled influence operations of not only Russia, but ISIS and al-Qaeda, as well.

Watts offers four recommendations to combat Russian influence and fake news. First, the U.S. and its allies should more clearly identify the purpose of Russian cyber influence operations. Second, they should unite American threat analysts with private-sector computer security experts. These experts should coordinate as a single task force, not silo themselves in their own agencies or departments. Finally, American cybersecurity needs to rely less on fancy (and expensive) “technical tools” and more on “talented analysts” who can then craft more finely tuned applications to detect influence agents.

This wasn’t the first time Watts addressed Congress. He testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on the same issue last month. Check it out:

Featured image via YouTube video.

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