Thread by @olgs7

Thanks for your patience, class! Took a little hiatus for a month. But we're back! In week 5 of “Lies & Disinformation” @Georgetown, we pivoted from Russian influence activities to Chinese and Iranian IO state actors.

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

@Georgetown Our first reading was from @RANDCorporation's Timothy Heath @WarOnTheRocks on China's influence operations targeting the Chinese diaspora. The article does good job of highlighting distinctions between Russian and Chinese operations and their tactics warontherocks.com/2018/03/beijin…

@Georgetown @RANDCorporation @WarOnTheRocks Students then read this analysis from @RecordedFuture, which also makes distinctions btw Russian and Chinese tactics (disruptive & destabilizing vs. largely positive & coordinated), Chinese tactics targeted domestically vs. abroad go.recordedfuture.com/hubfs/reports/…

@Georgetown @RANDCorporation @WarOnTheRocks @RecordedFuture Next up was this piece from @PLMattis
@WarOnTheRocks which probably does the best side-by-side analysis of Russian & Chinese IO: “set-piece ops vs. playing the man; service-led ops vs. service-facilitated ops; and agents of influence vs. influenced agents” warontherocks.com/2018/01/contra…

@Georgetown @RANDCorporation @WarOnTheRocks @RecordedFuture @PLMattis For Iranian ops, we read this important analysis @FireEye in 2018, which delves into a network focused on audiences in US, UK, LATAM, & Middle East: fireeye.com/blog/threat-re… and this historical overview of Iranian IO @ForeignAffairs from @ArianeTabatabai foreignaffairs.com/articles/middl…

@Georgetown @RANDCorporation @WarOnTheRocks @RecordedFuture @PLMattis @FireEye @ForeignAffairs @ArianeTabatabai Last but not least, students read the @citizenlab Endless Mayfly report @gabriellelim @tenacioustek @jsrailton @moranned @albefittarelli @RonDeibert, which looks at an Iranian network that created inauthentic personas, websites & “ephemeral disinformation” citizenlab.ca/2019/05/burned…

@Georgetown @RANDCorporation @WarOnTheRocks @RecordedFuture @PLMattis @FireEye @ForeignAffairs @ArianeTabatabai @citizenlab @gabriellelim @tenacioustek @jsrailton @moranned @albefittarelli @RonDeibert In class we broke out each state actor into respective tactics/patterns. For Iranian IO, that included impersonating respected orgs & news outlets, typosquatting, media front orgs, contacting journalists & activists, leveraging state media, content laundering, & partisan personas

@Georgetown @RANDCorporation @WarOnTheRocks @RecordedFuture @PLMattis @FireEye @ForeignAffairs @ArianeTabatabai @citizenlab @gabriellelim @tenacioustek @jsrailton @moranned @albefittarelli @RonDeibert For Chinese IO, that breakdown of tactics/patterns included media influence operations, targeting of diaspora communities, education/think tank front orgs, capitalizing on the entertainment sector/Hollywood, capturing influencers and “fan girl” culture, and leveraging state media

@Georgetown @RANDCorporation @WarOnTheRocks @RecordedFuture @PLMattis @FireEye @ForeignAffairs @ArianeTabatabai @citizenlab @gabriellelim @tenacioustek @jsrailton @moranned @albefittarelli @RonDeibert I know there’s been a lot of great writing, analysis on both Iranian and Chinese influence operations that has come out since we held this lecture earlier this year. I am definitely planning on updating the syllabus before the next spring semester. Feel free to send ideas my way!