ARISTEDES MAHAIRAS : MIKHAIL DVILYANSKI
At this stage of the campaign, the objective is to create confusion surrounding the true motivation behind the content and hide the origins and sponsorship by the foreign government. Subsequent to publication and consumption, the adversary will engage in a concerted effort to amplify the messaging. This intensification is powered by the modern information landscape and social media. Here, the adversary begins to achieve scale in order to sow discord, confusion, and doubt by saturating the information space and amplifying divisive issues that appeal to existing biases of the target audience.
The principle objective of this activity is to get unwitting audiences to engage with the influence content and disseminate it further within their own social networks, thus extending its reach. The effect of this total effort is ultimately analyzed by reviewing the impact on and engagement by the audience to assess the effectiveness of the influence campaign; this may undergo a period of fine-tuning to maximize its impact. The entire process and its ultimate success relies on the coordinated efforts of the numerous overt and covert actors who take part in the manufacture of stories and information designed to manipulate the masses.
Russia’s 2016 US Presidential election influence effort highlights just how this methodical approach is precisely implemented. Bill Priestap, Assistant Director, Counterintelligence Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation stated, “Russia’s 2016 presidential election influence effort was its boldest to date in the United States. Moscow employed a multifaceted approach intended to undermine confidence in our democratic process … which included the weaponization of stolen cyber information, the use of Russia’s English-language state media as a strategic messaging platform, and the mobilization of social media bots and trolls to spread disinformation and amplify Russian messaging.”[14] This statement clearly highlights the use of overt and covert means to create multiple false narratives designed to work together to shape the perception of the target audience.
A key objective of modern influence operations is to make true facts harder to find and garner consensus. The goal is to not just to present an alternate version of reality, but rather to contaminate the information space with many such versions, some of them conflicting, to confuse the audience and erode its ability to think critically. It is about creating a sentiment that no news source or narrative can be trusted and providing fodder to the audience to connect with whichever storyline most appeals to its pre-existing biases. It is about diminishing our collective ability to find the truth and agree on it. The modern information landscape allows for this to be achieved rapidly and at scale, by delivering false narratives directly to the audience much more quickly and broadly than was ever possible before. Achieving this objective is made easier when nearly two-thirds of American adults are getting at least some of their news on social media and where the act of sharing a piece of content (such as a post, a news story, or a meme) within one’s own social network can often be more important than its veracity.[15]
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