Thread by @olgs7

Now we’re getting to the juicy stuff. In week 3 of “Lies & Disinformation” @Georgetown, we basically had to make up for the fact that @RidT’s fantastic book had not yet come out. And I hope I did a decent job of telling the story of Soviet "Active Measures" without it.

https://twitter.com/olgs7/status/1271500145868365832

@Georgetown @RidT One thing I haven’t yet told you about class is that I kicked off a tradition of picking a propaganda poster to thematically work with each week’s lesson. In week 3, to go along with Active Measures, I decided to go with a classic – this Не болтай! poster from 1941.

@Georgetown @RidT Our first reading was an excerpt from the “Soviet Active Measures” Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing in 1985, featuring the testimony of former Defense Sec Robert Gates, who at the time was Deputy Director of Intelligence @CIA loc.gov/law/find/nomin…

@Georgetown @RidT @CIA “Moscow’s ability centrally to orchestrate their political influence activities, both overt and covert, is unique in the world,” Gates said at the time, covering tactics like front organizations, forgeries, article placements, agents of influence, and more.

@Georgetown @RidT @CIA Gates also likened Soviet efforts to that of a “giant political action committee” w/ a large budget, experienced campaign strategists, activists, serious PR chops, ability to place covert agents, freedom frm disclosure. Interesting to consider now in context of domestic IO actors

@Georgetown @RidT @CIA But before we dove into Cold War history, we went back to the 1920s-30s, talking about Soviet Agit trains used to spread propaganda w/ a reading from @adelheidh4: apparatusjournal.net/index.php/appa…; & Operation Trust involving a fake anti-Bolshevik org which @RidT covers v. well in his book

@Georgetown @RidT @CIA @adelheidh4 We couldn’t get through this week of class w/o covering the case that has become a trope of disinfo research references: Operation INFEKTION, complete w/ media placements, leveraging existing conspiratorial sentiment and agents of influence/trusted figures cia.gov/library/center…

@Georgetown @RidT @CIA @adelheidh4 Throughout class, we broke Soviet active measures into a set of tactics, which *surprise surprise* we were able to draw present-day parallels to. These included front orgs, use of trusted figures, co-opting mass media, forgeries, stoking conspiracy & racial tensions, and more

@Georgetown @RidT @CIA @adelheidh4 A great overview of Soviet tactics, Western responses lives in “Soviet Subversion, Disinformation and Propaganda: How the West Fought Against it” from @peterpomeranzev @anneapplebaum @NickCull @vassgatov @ali_shawx lse.ac.uk/business-and-c…

@Georgetown @RidT @CIA @adelheidh4 @peterpomeranzev @anneapplebaum @NickCull @vassgatov @ali_shawx One of the topics I spent some of time on: the Soviet active measures tactic of stoking racial tensions, capitalizing on existing ones. The recommend reading was “The History of Russian Involvement in America's Race Wars” @juliaioffe @TheAtlantic from 2017 theatlantic.com/international/…

@Georgetown @RidT @CIA @adelheidh4 @peterpomeranzev @anneapplebaum @NickCull @vassgatov @ali_shawx @juliaioffe @TheAtlantic These political cartoons which I shared in class speak specifically to the tactic of whataboutism and how racial tensions were/are ripe for exploitation. I pulled these from @marydudziak’s paper on the Little Rock crisis, which I recommend: weblaw.usc.edu/assets/docs/Du…

@Georgetown @RidT @CIA @adelheidh4 @peterpomeranzev @anneapplebaum @NickCull @vassgatov @ali_shawx @juliaioffe @TheAtlantic @marydudziak It's interesting looking back on this lesson from January now, what feels like yrs later. Looking through my notes, this was the first time we discussed COVID-19 conspiracies in class. And our discussion on how IO actors leverage existing racial tensions couldn't be more relevant