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More and more countries are mounting disinformation campaigns online
[...] That's a long way of saying that I forgive you if you'd like to skip today's news and instead just read nothing but explainers and Twitter threads about impeachment. It's kind of the biggest story in the world right now, and it will all play out in new and exciting and probably terrifying ways across all our big social platforms, and if you want to read some speculation on how I'd point you to this savvy Kevin Roose piece on the subject (further excerpted below).
But say you've finished your impeachment reading for the day and are eager to luxuriate in a good old-fashioned tale of platform-based information warfare. In that case may I please recommend a new report from researchers at Oxford University on the usage of disinformation campaigns by governments around the world. And usage is ... well, I bet you can guess!
Here's Davey Alba and Adam Satariano in the New York Times:
The researchers compiled information from news organizations, civil society groups and governments to create one of the most comprehensive inventories of disinformation practices by governments around the world. They found that the number of countries with political disinformation campaigns more than doubled to 70 in the last two years, with evidence of at least one political party or government entity in each of those countries engaging in social media manipulation.
In addition, Facebook remains the No. 1 social network for disinformation, the report said. Organized propaganda campaigns were found on the platform in 56 countries.
You can read the report yourself here. Personally I found it useful to just read a straightforward guide to the varieties of state-sponsored information attacks — most of which have long been in use, of course, by more garden-variety trolls.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday October 02 2019, @02:28PM (16 children)
You mean governments are both behind the times and liars? Say it ain't so!
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday October 02 2019, @02:31PM
Probably not as behind the times as they project themselves to be...
That's their job - if they're not lying, they're not representing the interests of their constituents to the best of their ability.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Wednesday October 02 2019, @03:00PM (14 children)
It ain't so. It's some governments are. Specifically, the high-capacity ones. Most aren't. Those that aren't, didn't get mention in the report or were mentioned under low-capacity.
compiling...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday October 02 2019, @03:34PM (13 children)
That's an absolutely stunning level of naivete you have going there. Corruption is not a function of size. Pick a town with as little as a thousand people in it and I guarantee you you will have corrupt officials and you will be lied to. Corrupt people are the only ones who actively seek power over others.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Wednesday October 02 2019, @04:40PM (4 children)
I'm skeptical of this claim. I suspect (but cannot prove) that larger power structures are more attractive than small ones in the eyes of those who seek to grab the world and hold it; local politics is often seen as a stepping stone to the national stage. This doesn't exclude small hierarchies from corruption.
This is either a tautology (if we consider all people corrupt) or an overstatement. Can you think of no situation where you have actively sought power to accomplish a specific end? You've never jockeyed for a promotion that would give you power over a co-worker?
(Score: 3, Touché) by DannyB on Wednesday October 02 2019, @05:14PM
Maybe for the competent.
For the less competent, one might find a comfortable life of corruption in a small town if you have control over enough people.
For everyone else, there's MasterCard.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday October 02 2019, @07:53PM
Larger power structures are more attractive but the competition for the spots is more fierce. Those with the highest corruption score get the best positions and those who suck at it get the lesser ones. Odd that an enemy of meritocracy is in fact itself a meritocracy.
Slight hyperbole for hyperbole's traditional purpose.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Wednesday October 02 2019, @09:53PM (1 child)
Certain systems of government will encourage corruption more than others. But I agree with TMB - small organisations have a huge capacity for corruption.
My case in point - University student politics. We're not talking huge sums of money here - a few thousand in grants at most. But when I was involved in a University social club, I was part of the "Clubs and Societies" meetings within the Student Union. Wow. Branch stacking. Falsified club registration papers. Smear campaigns. The level of bullshit that went on there was incredible.
My take - the smaller the stakes, the more grubby politics is. Federal politics is certainly a dirty game, but State politics is worse, Municipal/Council politics worse again and Student politics the absolute bottom of the barrel. I can't outright state that there's a correlation between 'grubbiness' and corruption, but it wouldn't surprise me based on my experience
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday October 03 2019, @12:56PM
I also agree with TMB. Corruption scales.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RamiK on Wednesday October 02 2019, @06:39PM (3 children)
Who said anything about general corruption? We're talking about being liars and behind the times in the context of waging information warfare as a nation. That's to say, not simply lying to your own constituents. But rather, having a state funded program that manipulates public opinion, in and abroad, through social media via pushing talk points and a national agenda while discrediting the opposition's points with half-truths and lies.
Putting aside the means, it's most certainly the case that most governments simply lack significant enough needs to justify such programs. I mean, most EU members... Canada... most Asian & African nations... What do they have to obfuscate that they can afford to obfuscate in terms of costs and risks if exposed? For them, the industries make due with hiring advertising agencies to deal with lobbies, politicians and boardrooms level corruption well enough.
I mean, just look at that list of nations. They either have skeletons or at least have well funded enemies and need to defend against propaganda with counter propaganda. But other than that, why bother? War is money going down the drain. Not everyone is fine with that.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday October 02 2019, @07:56PM (2 children)
Such programs exist at any scale. They just don't have the manpower and have to do things themselves or have "a guy" mostly rather than having a department.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RamiK on Wednesday October 02 2019, @08:27PM (1 child)
You see that "Disinformation Campaigns Online" in the title? The high/medium/low capacity distinction is the difference between having a guy running around doing public relations damage control and posting #MAGA style twitts versus full time contractors billing by the millions and campaigning the spread of very deliberate FUD backed by everything from selective reports to fake news 24/7.
The difference in proportions between high and low capacity here is between a standing army that's equipped and trains for offensive ground warfare and 3 Mounties in a forestry station that patrol the maple orchards armed with a radio to report any sighting of bears and such. The guys not in the list don't even have that.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday October 02 2019, @11:09PM
Doesn't take but one lie you want to believe to make you look like an idiot. Small scale organizations don't need to canvas the entire world to be effective, only those whose views matter. For a small town, one person could handle the entire load.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday October 03 2019, @03:14PM (3 children)
Cynic, much? There are people who run for political office purely to improve the situation of their constituency, to serve to the best of their ability. In my experience they are about 1/10 at the local level and they get more rare on the way up the power hierarchy, but... they are there. On your average local schoolboard there's usually one (out of 8 or so...), once in a rare while you'll get one in as Mayor or Sheriff. Unfortunately, lacking the motivation of corruption, they do tend to burn out - and find it hard to function in the existing systems since they don't trade in the predominant currencies.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday October 03 2019, @03:42PM (2 children)
I scoff at the naivete of cynics. Seriously though, even those that to all outward appearances are entirely altruistic in their motives are corrupt. Whether you're selling people's liberties to corporations or saying things you know to be untrue to save lives is just a matter of flavors.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday October 03 2019, @04:08PM (1 child)
I think that falls under the job description of most "security" related postings.
As for corruption - I have interacted personally with a couple of non-self-serving schoolboard members, and later a wife of a personal friend actually got on to her local school board purely with the intention (and result) of "doing good for the community." She was particularly exasperated with the (majority of the) board members who were just using schoolboard as a stepping stone to higher political office and power brokering - losers at that level are such frustrating people to deal with. I was personally frustrated with the chairman of our local schoolboard who barely took off his KKK garb before stepping into the chambers, discrimination wasn't just his middle name, it was his first and last word on every issue - carefully composed to stay one hair inside the federal guidelines, on paper at least.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday October 03 2019, @05:21PM
You're likely correct that it's not an absolute rule. It's more than close enough that it should be treated as such though.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.