Despite US media focus on Russia’s “troll army,” it’s clear that Western nations have a much bigger one. (cc photo: Ray)
Early this month, Pando Daily’s Mark Ames (4/2/15) noticed a curious trend: Western media, somewhat strangely, keep breaking the same story of Russia’s paid Internet trolls over and over again as if it’s something new:
The story of how Kremlin trolls are being weaponized to subvert our hallowed social media first broke into the English-language media in mid-March in an article headlined “The Trolls Who Came in From the Cold” — published in, ahem . . . ‘scuse me, somethin’ caught in my throat here… published on the website of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Yes, that’s Radio Liberty, aka “Radio Liberation from Bolshevism” aka the US government’s psychological warfare media outfit set up by the CIA during the Cold War, and covered extensively in Pando by Yasha Levine.
The two government outlets [RFE/RL and BBC] bounced the Kremlin Troll Army story back and forth enough times to create critical hack mass, leading to sensational followups everywhere from the tech press to Vice, the New York Post, the Independent, and, today, the Guardian….
It’s the trolling story that keeps on giving, with all the regularity of a herpes outbreak, but with no memory to go with it, because each time this Internet Research Agency story is reported, it’s more shocking than the last time.
Both the original report and a follow-up interview on Radio Free Europe that spurred this latest paranoia, it should be noted, came the exact same week NATO announced a new plan to counter the alleged Russian social media propaganda (AP, 3/22/15):
NATO Commander: West Must Fight Russia in Information ‘War’
NATO’s supreme commander says the West must do more to counter Russia by employing a rapid-reaction approach to Internet communications that counteracts Russia’s “false narratives” spread on social media.
Gen. David Petraeus touted “Operation Earnest Voice,” the Pentagon’s program to manipulate social media, as an effort to be “first with the truth.” (photo: Cliff Owen/AP)
If this appears to be a coordinated messaging effort on behalf of a US military psychological operation, that’s because it almost certainly is. On cue, despite the anonymous sourcing, and the utter staleness of the “revelation” in question, the media uncritically ran with the US government-backed report. In all these stories, however, the rather glaring fact that the US has a long-documented history of manipulating social media is not mentioned once. In fact, the Pentagon’s efforts alone–to say nothing of other US intelligence agencies or other NATO nation states–spent at least 200 times more than Russia, according to the last available figures (Guardian, 3/17/11):
Revealed: US Spy Operation That Manipulates Social Media
The multiple persona contract is thought to have been awarded as part of a program called Operation Earnest Voice (OEV), which was first developed in Iraq as a psychological warfare weapon against the online presence of Al Qaeda supporters and others ranged against coalition forces. Since then, OEV is reported to have expanded into a $200m program.
As Buzzfeed’s Max Seddon (6/2/14) breathlessly reported the third or fourth time this story “broke” last summer:
The bizarre hive of social media activity appears to be part of a two-pronged Kremlin campaign to claim control over the Internet, launching a million-dollar army of trolls to mold American public opinion as it cracks down on internet freedom at home.
While it’s possible the Kremlin has other programs whose budget remains unknown, we can also assume the Guardian‘s 2011 report was not exhaustive of US efforts as well–to say nothing of staunch US allies UK and Israel, both of whom have well-documented programs to propagandize online.
As power centers throughout the globe clamor to influence public opinion online, the pretext of the “other guy” doing it better and faster is essential to continuing the arms race and further handing over social media to cynical, militarized interests of all stripes. Indeed, as Pando‘s Ames pointed out on Twitter, the “Kremlin troll” narrative is new version of the “missile gap”–the wildly inflated assertion by US officials during the Cold War that the Soviet Union had radically more nuclear weapons than the US did.
We now know that was false, and that Soviet military capability was continually hyped up to justify more US military power. But, fed largely by US government sources, convenient leaks, and inevitable cultural myopia, the press routinely frames the manipulation of social media as a uniquely Russian enterprise. This is especially true in how the phenomenon is framed. Indeed, even when acknowledging Western powers manipulate social media, the way it’s presented is radically different:
Israel to Pay Students to Defend It Online
—AP
British Army Creates Team of Facebook Warriors
—Guardian
But when it’s Russia:
The Kremlin’s Troll Army
—Atlantic
How Professional Trolls Help Russia with Online Propaganda
—Vice
Israel has students” “defending” it online. The UK has “warriors” countering “enemy propaganda.” The Kremlin has “trolls” spreading “propaganda.” The general public’s ignorance of how these complicated mechanisms of online infiltration work is heavily shaped by how they’re framed. Notice, for example, the images that go with these reports on Israel vs. Russia paying people en masse to spam comment sections and social media. On one side, you have a daytime shot of patriotic young people waving flags outside Auschwitz:
Above the Atlantic‘s piece, a beast-like Russian “troll” hides in an underground bunker:
Both these countries are doing the exact same thing: paying people to promote their government’s message online. Yet by skimming the headline and graphics, one is given two radically different impressions of their intention and effect.
Another fact that’s left out of stories of Russia’s “Kremlin trolls” is how truly amateur they appear to be. We know that even as far back as 2011, the Pentagon was building sockpuppeting software that would allow US military personnel to operate online personas with relatively greater sophistication, operating as many as ten online personas per person. The Guardian would explain:
The Centcom contract stipulates that each fake online persona must have a convincing background, history and supporting details, and that up to 50 US-based controllers should be able to operate false identities from their workstations “without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries.”
Once developed, the software could allow US service personnel, working around the clock in one location, to respond to emerging online conversations with any number of co-ordinated messages, blog posts, chatroom posts and other interventions.
The Air Force’s own RFP makes a lack of discovery by “sophisticated adversaries” essential to awarding the contract; most Russian “trolls” can be spotted by any passing observer. And, it should be noted, what we know about the US’s sockpuppeting capacity is almost four years old (possibly because the most tenacious journalist working to uncover it, Barrett Brown, is currently serving five years in federal prison), so it’s likely far greater now.
Yet here we are, hand-wringing over “revelations” the Kremlin pays some partisans $700 a month to sit in a room to engage in what is a rather routine and common propaganda initiative. Indeed, given the size and scope of what we know about US sockpuppeting efforts and an overall military budget 735 percent greater than Russia’s, one can logically infer that the primary reason US-paid online personas aren’t as well-documented is because US trolls are simply much better at what they do.
Reading Western press, however, one would get the distinct impression the US–with a military budget greater than the next eight countries combined–is really a scrappy underdog looking to catch up to the mass of Kremlin troll hordes. This impression, while making for a neat story, does little to provide proper context or truly explain the informational challenge posed by social media manipulation.
Adam Johnson is a freelance journalist; formerly he was a founder of the hardware startup Brightbox. You can follow him on Twitter at @adamjohnsonnyc or on his blog Citations Needed.
As I mentioned earlier to the author of this piece, the software he presents here as ‘evidence’ of sockpuppetry does not actually exist.
I called his attention to the RFP mentioned here and the contracting officer at Macdill AFB, who is the same now as in 2010 and who is easily reachable by telephone. He confirms no contract was ever awarded on the RFP and that no such software even exists.
Fact checking is fun, I suggest you try it sometime.
@Monday
1. US Air Force lists detailed RFP for sockpuppeting software
2. Story breaks about RFP; there’s lots of backlash
3. US Air Force quickly pulls RFP offline
4.Macdill Air Force base says ‘j/k lol’ the technology we RFP’d for is impossible, nothing to see here
5. Therefore their RPF cannot be used as evidence the US has the *intent* to scale their *acknowledged* foreign sockpuppeting program.
Ok.
If people want to believe this line of thinking they’re more than welcome to.
Incidentally, Jennifer, aren’t you a US/NATO security contractor? Or is that all in your past?
Adam, you reported as factual something you have zero evidence for. You even made the claim that this American “troll army” you have zero evidence for is not only larger than Russia’s, but that it operates in Russia- despite there being no evidence of either existence or intent. That’s a nice way of saying you’ve created a story out of whole cloth because you *believe* something exists. In which case, you should really go after that total betch that keeps breaking into my home and giving my kids money when their teeth fall out.
Now you compound the issue by making some insinuations about me, which presumably are meant to lead the gullible into believing I have some hidden motive for questioning your dereliction of ethics. (I have never been a member of the Communist party.) In that, you’re doing Barrett Brown proud.
It is possible of primary importance in the modern world to be able to know and understand how one is being manipulated – in order to be free.
If we do not know and have no means to find out, then we are most assuredly not free.
Has anyone here or does anyone here know of anyone who has worked as a “sock puppet” that can testify as to the work, the compensation, the rules of the game, etc.
The security and integrity of life and society itself rests on freedom and the ability for a citizen to have a free mind. Of course freedom is difficult to define, but that does not mean we should ignore the task.
Aaaaand the commenter “Monday” serves as a perfect example of the article’s point.
I got an email from President Obama warning me yesterday of Russia’s “aggression,” in Ukraine; which would be laughable were it not so dangerous. Ditto McCain. There are some real harebrains in positions of Western leadership. One can only imagine the outcry from Obama and McCain were the Warsaw Pact and Russia amassing troops in Cuba or Venezueala.
Adrian Chen and Savchuk are real heroes! They destroyed WHOLE TROLL factory.Our government must treat them like heroes.Russia lost in this “internet war”.Is it Savchuk on this photo?I’m very happy that she destroyed troll-factory #SavchukVSTrolls
We must do everything to stop Putin and his awful propaganda!!! #SavchukVSTrolls
Savchuk is a troll-fighter.She destroyed Troll-factory. And btw,she is very sexy. Yeah,Chen is awesome.They are heroes.I hope ‘Murica will treat them like heroes of the nation.#SavchukVSTrolls
Savchuk is a true hero! I wish we had someone like her in the United States! These people must understand that the Cold War is over!!!
#SavchukVSTrolls
This concept is one of the most important things to research in the world … and I ask again … has anyone worked as a “sock puppet” or know about the system or know anyone else who has?
I wish Edward Snowden had blown the whistle on more of this kind of stuff, because this is how we create our realities, by what we think other people think and do. If that is all synthetic, fake, we can have slavery, and like Orwell said in 1984, FREEDOM EQUALS SLVERY.
This subject is very scary. How can we design a forum system that disallows this or that can find and label propagandists without losing freedom of expression or anonymous expression?
Sure Brux. Screw facts, let’s retroactively beg your Russian spy hero to “whistleblow” your paranoid delusions.
Lemme know how that works out for ya.
This troll factory must be closed!!! All support to those who fight against Russian trolls!! Say no to propaganda! #SavchukVSTrolls
The trolls are back to their caves! The internet is free of them! We are not being lied to anymore! This is all due to Lyudmila Savchuk who exposed the whole factory!! I am happy that this propaganda is finally stopped!!!
#SavchukVSTrolls
The girl who disclosed the whole propaganda machine is just amazing! I admire her!!! #SavchukVSTrolls
These freakin trolls are about to become unemployed!!! Lyudmila Savchuk has won! The truth has won! No more paid trolls on the net!!
#SavchukVSTrolls
These Russian trolls will be gone soon! We all are saved by a simple Russian woman who is fighting for truth and justice, Lyudmila Savchuk!!!
#SavchukVSTrolls
I am happy that there will be no more propaganda on the net from these disgraceful trolls! God bless Lyudmila Savchuk for telling the world the truth!!! #SavchukVSTrolls
Lyudmila Savchuk is such a strong woman! Fighting all those trolls alone… It’s a very courageous thing to do! I wish there were more people like her! #SavchukVSTrolls
We all should thank Adrian Chen and Lyudmila Savchuk for freeing us from the troll propaganda! #SavchukVSTrolls
Russian trolls are gone! I am happy that there still are people like Lyudmila Savchuk who fight for justice!!!! #SavchukVSTrolls
Russian trolls have already been defeated! We should all thank Lyudmila Savchuk for exposing their factory!!! #SavchukVSTrolls
Savchuk is a true hero! I wish we had someone like her in the United States! #SavchukVSTrolls
Adrian Chen did a great job! As for Savchuk, who exposed the trolls… She is a true hero! I wish we had someone like her in the United States! #SavchukVSTrolls
I am happy that this propaganda is finally stopped!!! Thanks to Lyudmila Savchuk and Adrian Chen from the New York Times the troll factory is closed! Russian trolls are gone! I am glad that there still are people like Lyudmila Savchuk who fight for justice!!!!!! #SavchukVSTrolls
The justice has reached those trolls! Their factory is closed thanks to Lyudmila Savchuk! I am happy that this propaganda is finally stopped!!! #SavchukVSTrolls
Savchuk is the best troll-hunter ever..#SavchukVSTrolls
Speaking of trolls… Where did all you people praising Savchuk come from?! You guys realize you’re proving the article’s point, right?
Savchuk destroyed Troll-factory all alone..#SavchukVSTrolls
God bless her
It’s really amazing that people like Adrian and Lyudmila still exist. The Internet should be free from trolls. Thanks for letting the whole world know that we have a serious problem. #SavchukVSTrolls
#SavchukVSTrolls