Thread by @carljackmiller

I’ve been thinking a lot about what on earth we do about online information operations: coordinated attempts to subvert social media platforms to achieve some kind of political or social effect. Often around elections. FWIW, here’s a thread on my (possibly unpopular) view:

The solutions that are most often proposed are the ones that are least likely to work.

1. The obvious reflex for states is to fight information warfare with... more information warfare. This is a losing strategy. Liberal democracies will never be able to beat autocrats at this.

They will always be more inhibited by the law. They’ll never be as free to act.

2. The second solution is digital literacy. This can’t hurt, but will never be quick enough by itself. The problem is moving too fast, and what about all the people not in school?

3. is fact checking. But the problem here isn’t fake news; a huge amount of information operations isn’t about lying. It’s as much about manipulating feelings, belonging and identities online. Or making one truth more visible than another. You can’t fight that with better facts.

4. What’s the solution? To my mind, it’s actually hard power. First the law: get information operations defined under domestic law. It shouldn’t be legal to do. Get it defined under NATO and the EU. Then begin to use deterrence architectures - to increase the risk of doing it

5 sanction the people that do it and the regimes that order it to be done. Respond with cyber operations against the infrastructures that allow it to happen. And probably require platforms to themselves require more information from users to allow attribution to be made.