Thread/ The media has been an incredible partner in empowering VVA to fight to ensure that veterans and their families are free from foreign influence online. The spotlight that @WSJ's @bkesling and @dnvolz shined on this issue this week was tremendous wsj.com/articles/an-ar…
2/ In this thread we'd like to highlight all of the journalists and media outlets that have helped VVA ring the alarm bells on the issue of foreign elements targeting veterans online. Follow along to see how the story evolved, as a group of publications worked to expose the issue
3/ On October 10, 2017, @LeoShane of @MilitaryTimes wrote about the Oxford Study that identified veterans as targets of hostile actors using disinformation campaigns, and VVA's first public call for action to protect our community. militarytimes.com/veterans/2017/…
4/ The following week, @nikkiwentling of @starsandstripes amplified our call for help in taking down a @facebook page (that we later learned was run by trolls in Bulgaria) which was imitating VVA, and specifically targeting Vietnam Veterans. stripes.com/facebook-shuts…
5/ Days later, @nikkiwentling was able to report that we succeeded in having the imposter VVA page taken down. stripes.com/facebook-shuts…
6/ @TaskandPurpose then amplified @nikkiwentling's @starsandstripes piece, helping to ensure that a larger audience became aware that there were foreign trolls targeting veterans for disinformation campaigns. taskandpurpose.com/facebook-shuts…
7/ @ScottShaneNYT and @MikeIsaac then helped to put VVA's fight against foreign fake veteran pages into the larger context of foreign influence campaigns targeting the American electorate with their piece in @nytimes on November 3, 2017. nytimes.com/2017/11/03/tec…
8/ In Feb/March 2018 we discovered that the Bulgarian trolls were at it again, and prepared a report for congress and various federal agencies. We called on @DeptVetAffairs and @DeptofDefense to respond. Read the report and see the list of recipients here: docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF…
9/ On April 11, 2018 at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, @HouseCommerce Chairman @repgregwalden cited VVA's report and challenged @facebook CEO #MarkZuckerberg to start working to protect veterans online.
10/ The next day, @NatashaBertrand wrote in @TheAtlantic about VVA's report and the E&C Committee's role in ensuring veterans are protected online. theatlantic.com/technology/arc…
11/ On April 13, 2018, @JaneLytv of @BuzzFeed discovered an even larger network of pages than VVA had found. The same foreign entity ran lots of pages aimed at deceiving veterans, and @facebook shut them all down as soon as Jane sent questions about them. buzzfeednews.com/article/janely…
12/ On April 26, 2018, @USMC veteran and @TaskandPurpose contributor @justine wrote a quick instructional to help veterans learn to identify deceptive pages run by foreign elements. taskandpurpose.com/dont-get-trapp…
13/ On June 7, 2018, @JournoGeoffZ of @MilitaryTimes wrote about a #GoldStar wife appealing to people to stop sharing a photo of her over her husband's casket as a political meme. This made us realize we needed to expand our investigation... militarytimes.com/news/your-mili…
14/ Using the same methods that helped us figure out that the fake-VVA trolls were in Bulgaria, @JournoGeoffZ's piece tipped us off so that we could discover the political meme with the #GoldStarWife was being shared by *many* pages run by trolls outside the US.
15/ By then, @facebook's Threat Intelligence Team was taking VVA seriously, and they quickly acted to remove a network of pages that had been sharing the photo in question. Big thanks goes to @clairecmc's @SenateHSGACDems staff for facilitating that introduction.
16/ On July 13, 2018 we had our first opportunity to meet @facebook's Threat Intelligence Team in DC. There we presented our preliminary findings, and **during the meeting** they started shutting down pages that we flagged that broke FB rules (incl two sharing nude pics of vets)
17/ In July 2018, we started using graphics from a November 2018 @washingtonpost piece by @dtkeating @kevinschaul and @lmshap to help us identify confirmed #Russian propaganda on the pages we had already been researching. Spoiler alert: WE FOUND A LOT. washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/…
18/ After July, we agreed to give WSJ the exclusive on our most-recent findings, so we went dark and quietly continued our research. We provided full access to our notes to FB's Threat Intel Team and the WSJ Journalists.
19/ We also began sharing some of our @Twitter related findings with their Site Integrity Team. Twitter has *not* been the focus of our investigation, but 1) cross-referencing FB Pages with 2) affiliated websites, with 3) connected Twitter accounts, often helps ID networks.
20/ The @WSJ story broke this week, but it seems this is still just the beginning. We've been getting a few additional tips from our members and followers that we'll need to follow up on. Just starting to share our research with cyber-security pros and researchers.
21/ Now that the problem has been identified, it's time to work towards a solution. Calling for heads at private companies is a waste of energy -- it's time for us all to work together to secure our democracy and protect veterans from being the targets of foreign adversaries.
22/ As we said in the latest by @nikkiwentling, "This is an issue of national security, and affects the well-being of American troops and vets... we’re asking for the blame game to end, and for America’s government to step up and protect our population." stripes.com/news/veterans/…
24/ We ask that those who can afford it, please subscribe to the above publications. Please follow these journalists and support their work. Without them, we'd be unable to stand up to the powerful and to help troops and veterans in such big and groundbreaking ways.
25/ How else can people help? Get involved like @RileyTopping did, writing an opinion piece in @thehill encouraging the government to do more to help veterans combat disinformation campaigns. thehill.com/opinion/techno…
