When the Kremlin launched its weaponization of social media prior to 🇺🇸 2016 election, there was great concern that other malignant actors would quickly adopt these techniques.
What is meant by “Active Measures”? It’s a term coined to describe political warfare developed by the Soviet Union starting in the 1920s. But the techniques live on & have evolved.
It describes an array of operations.
In a nutshell they include….
•#Disinformation & propaganda, both of which take advantage of free speech laws & social media, making it difficult to combat. There’s also laundering of information through paid PR firms & lobbying groups, masking who is really funding an operation.
•Deployment of #cyberweapons: Intrusion & hacking, cyber-attacks, malware, stolen personal info, etc.
•Political influence. Forming relationships with political figures, influential people, media personalities, policy makers, people who hold sway in targeted jurisdictions.
•Campaign finance: using straw donors, including donations disguised as “individual donations”, as a means to funnel money outside of campaign finance laws. Funneling foreign money to the campaigns of politicians who will cooperate with the agenda of the donor. #DarkMoney
The exploitation of social media has accelerated not just Russian #ActiveMeasures, but all forms of malign influence operations. Saudi Arabia, China, UAE, Israel, Iran & so on, in addition to non-state actors & proxy groups.
@mikercarpenter, summarized 3 main types of these influence operations: #InfoOps, elite infiltration & destabilizing operations.
Elite infiltration of large media corporations include seeking relationships with media personalities with sizeable followings. (#TuckerCarlson?)
1. I’m starting a series of threads on #Project2025. It’s more than just a blueprint for destroying democracy & installing fascism. It’s a blueprint for the wholesale ravaging of the environment to benefit billionaires. Specifically, extraction industry billionaires.
The partners in #Project2025, are billionaire-backed right wing extremist front operations disguising themselves as “pro family values”, “freedom”, “choice in education” “traditional values”. When in fact, it’s about autocracy & dismantling public protections. #DemocracyInDanger
3. In this series, we’ll look at some of the partners in #Project2025. The deception & con-jobs designed to hoodwink the public. Let’s take a look at “Native Americans for Sovereignty & Preservation. This group hijacks causes & imitates topics important to Indigenous communities.
Running 74 fake spoiler candidates who don’t live, support, or even campaign, in the communities they target, is so clearly a dirty trick & an abuse of rules & norms, benefiting #Conservatives. The organizers claim to be independent, but the ridings they target tell another story
#ElectoralReform is an exploited talking point aimed mostly at the left to hive off Liberal support - always to benefit #Conservatives. It was debated & quickly got messy. It’s been used as “broken promise” propaganda ever since.
Yes, this 👇
The dirty tricks by the “extreme ballot committee” or the “longest ballot f*ckery committee” or whatever, is, and has been, spun across propaganda media. It perpetuates misinformation and propaganda. #TorontoStPaul #cdnpoli
On #NeverPoilievre’s website, on the first page, is a link to propaganda from a known Kremlin mouth piece & white nationalist, Cosmin Dzsurdzsa. Even RW propaganda site #PostMillennial fired Dzsurdzsa. Once again, PP dog whistles to far right extremists & 🇷🇺. #cdnpoli #cdnmedia
Who then hired this far right Kremlin mouth piece? #TrueNorthCentre, a pro Poilievre registered “charity” front operation, spreading disinformation disguised as “news”. #CdnDisinfo #cdnmedia #CdnMediaCrisis #cdnpoli #NeverVoteConservative
#TrueNorthCentre played a pivotal role in ousting Erin O’Toole, pushing PP, & spreading #FluTruxKlan destabilization op propaganda as well as promoting Kremlin talking points & pro Kremlin political figures like #ChristineAnderson. #cdnpoli #NeverPoilievre
On this New Year’s Day 2024, let’s look back on 2023, a year in review of some of the more notable propaganda campaigns that misled the public, using both legacy/corporate media & social media. 🧵
#NewYear2024 #AYearInReview #cdnmedia #cdnpoli #Goodbye2023 #CdnDisinfo
Let’s start with recent history. The appalling partisanship & lack of critical thinking, in addition to a willingness to comply, with the foreign ops of authoritarians like Modi, laid bare (again) our #CdnMediaCrisis. Then silence when more evidence came to light. #cdnpoli
Of course, one of the biggest ops of 2023 was the Chinese interference story. Picking off off LPC MPs in key ridings, appeared to be an aim, using unassessed unknown confidence intel, leaked by partisans. #cdnmedia played such a starring role, @MarkBourrie called it #CoupByMedia
The political right is an anti-democratic movement. They collude, network, share donors, strategies, dirty tricks, ways to cheat, propaganda/disinformation networks, lies. Stephen Harper’s #IDU co-chair, indicted in Georgia in Trump/#GOP attempts to overthrow democracy. #cdnpoli
#Conservatives & #Republicans have been using, sharing and colluding for years. #IDU #NeverVoteConservative #cdnpoli https://t.co/4edSAIeQJFthetyee.ca/Analysis/2019/…
That time Andrew Scheer was super cagey and evasive about indicted Trump co-conspirator, Mike Roman, being part of his team.
PP calling #CBC “Trudeau Liberal propaganda”, had 2 objectives: to discredit CBC when holding Polievre #CPC to account AND to make CBC second guess any positive stories about Trudeau & #LPC. @CBC obliges with stories like this. #cdnpoli#cdnmedia
By the way, the Jamaican trip was a Xmas vacation. So why is this a “top story” that prominently quotes #NevrePoilievre? @CBCRadioCanada@CBCNews, care to explain?
#Cdnmedia: it’s time to decide whether you are on the side of democracy or on the side of dismantling it. #cdnpoli