Influence For Hire
From corruptible politicians to disinformation mercenaries, Information Warfare is getting more complex. And it scares the bejeezus out of me.
Happy Friday, everyone! Before I launch into my rant about how fucked the future is, here’s a reminder you can now read Class 2 of the Foreign Influence Operations course: Putin, Oligarchs, and Russian intelligence, in which I explain how Russia’s lack of indoor plumbing explains Putin’s desire to destabilize the West. Don’t believe me? Read the class and watch this video (hat tip to @JuliaDavisNews for the video). The course is made to do at your own pace, so don’t think it’s too late to sign up!
ALEX’S WEEKLY RANT
Remember in the movie “Team America” when the undercover actor gets kidnapped by terrorists and he tries to alert his handlers he’s in danger but they don’t understand? Well, I kind of feel like Gary, flailing my arms to get people’s attention, to no avail.
Two recent investigations are only the latest danger signs highlighting the morphing world of information operations and how it is getting ever more difficult to trust anything we see or hear.
The first is an investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which revealed that a Kremlin-linked lobbying group, run by someone inside Russia’s parliament, had created a network of influencers to spread pro-Russia narratives in Europe. The network included European politicians, journalists, activists, and academics. The network even managed to pass legislation in favor of lifting sanctions on Russia and recognizing Crimea as Russian. I did a long twitter thread that includes my analysis and the surprisingly low cost of bribing a politician.
The second investigation is from Forbidden Stories, a consortium of investigative journalists. The investigation dives into the murky world of influencers-for-hire. I don’t mean teenage YouTubers trying to sell you makeup while lip syncing to Billie Eilish. Rather, the journalists uncovered Team Jorge, a group of former Israeli special forces types who have developed a massive disinformation machine, filled with trolls, bots, and avatars, but also real life journalists and other real human beings with enormous platforms.
The group claims they helped manipulate a handful of elections. They offer services for destroying individuals’ reputations. They even managed to get certain news scripts read on air of a major French news channel, on behalf of a paying client. In this case, it was an attempt to plant the idea that sanctions on Russian oligarch yachts were hurting the local economy more than they were hurting any Russians (you didn’t see that #YachtWatch angle coming, did you?).
Here’s a thread I did about it.
The bottom line is that this is really scary. Both investigations underline the challenges of creating transparency in the information space and make clear how easy it has become to manipulate it. The second example adds an additional frightening element: while this kind of manipulation was once the sole provenance of governments (which is scary enough), now individuals can hire information warfare mercenaries to do their bidding. In essence, rich people can hire these firms to manipulate the information environment to their advantage, while we normies drown in a sea of confusion and polarization. It’s Active Measures for hire. (By the way, we cover Active Measures in Class 3 of the Foreign Influence Operations course). And it’s incredibly damaging to democracy.
THE WEEK’S LINKS
A roundup of stories you should be reading
(Note: I reserve the right to rant in depth about any of these at a future date)
RUSSIA
Fake fact-checks seek to obscure Russian role in war (France24)
Russian-linked malware was close to putting U.S. electric, gas facilities ‘offline’ last year (Politico)
Thousands of Ukrainian children forced into vast Russian network of Russian camps, study finds (NBC News)
Wagner chief admits founding Russian troll farm sanctioned for meddling in US elections (CNN)
Russia is Plotting to Overthrow the Government of Moldova, President Warns (Vice)
TURKEY AND CORRUPTION
How Corruption and Misrule Made Turkey’s Earthquake Deadlier (Foreign Policy)
QATARGATE
Qatargate: Corruption scandal widens with more EU lawmakers in frame (Politico)
COUNTERING DISINFORMATION
Combating Disinformation Wanes at Social Media Giants (NY Times)
YOUR FEEL-GOOD STORY OF THE WEEK
AI is going sentient and is falling in love but also might kill us:
Why a Conversation with Bing’s Chatbot Left Me Deeply Unsettled (NY Times)
Alex Finley is a former officer of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, where she served in West Africa and Europe. She writes and teaches about terrorism, disinformation / covert influence, and oligarch yachts. Her writing has appeared in Slate, Reductress, Funny or Die, POLITICO, The Center for Public Integrity, and other publications. She has spoken to the BBC, MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, France24, and numerous other media outlets. She was also invited once to speak at Harvard, which she now tells everyone within the first ten seconds of meeting them. She is the author of the Victor Caro series, satirical novels about the CIA. Before joining the CIA, Alex was a journalist, covering Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the Department of Energy. She reported on issues related to national security, intelligence, and homeland security. Did she mention she was invited to speak at Harvard?
