A bad case of Russian hysteria is breaking out across the Western world again. It’s all too familiar for anyone with an interest in history. But there are some modern twists.
Imagine this headline at the height of McCarthyism: “Facebook and Reddit have shut down Russian troll farms.” It probably wouldn’t have surprised anyone in the 1950s that the Russians have troll farms. Facebook and Reddit sound like government surveillance programs.
I don’t really know what Reddit is. But the news says 944 accounts linked to a Russian troll farm were closed by the company. Facebook previously closed accounts on its platform and Instagram that were linked to $167,000 in Russian-directed ad spending. They were largely linked to the helpfully named IRA, or Internet Research Agency.
Did the ads break any rules? Nope, says Facebook’s chief security officer. The Financial Times explains the nature of the banned ads and accounts:
Facebook had decided to take down the accounts because they were controlled by the IRA, not because their content broke company policies, he added.
The pages and accounts were predominately in Russian, targeted at people inside Russia or Russian speakers in countries such as Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. They included commentary on political issues, as well as the promotion of Russian culture and tourism, Facebook said.
Over on Reddit, the evil machinations of the pesky Russians turn out to be even weaker:
“Few” of the 944 accounts had a “visible impact on the site”, Mr Huffman said, and 145 had been banned before the 2016 election took place.
“Our investigation did not find any election-related advertisements of the nature found on other platforms, through either our self-serve or managed advertisements,” Mr Huffman said. “I also want to be very clear that none of the 944 users placed any ads on Reddit. We also did not detect any effective use of these accounts to engage in vote manipulation.”
Promoting Russian tourism unsuccessfully on social media seems like a strange way for Russia to go about the business of destroying Western democracy. As does posting in Russian and targeting Russian readers. But in the wake of attacking Syria, the Russians took to social media to retaliate reports the Financial Times:
The Pentagon said earlier that the number of Russian bots active on social media had increased by 2,000 per cent in the wake of the Syria strikes.Â
The alleged Russia-linked online influence networks were “intended to discredit or undermine US and allied countries generally, and more specifically our objectives, motivations, and ultimately our actions, in Syria,” said Major Dave Eastburn, Pentagon spokesman.
All this is downright pathetic. While the West bombs a rather long list of nations, the Russians are posting on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and Instagram in Russian to try and confuse people into voting for Donald Trump and Brexit.
If they’re this desperate, Western politicians must be absolutely panicking about the lack of Russia’s evil deeds they can point to. Well, they point about everything, but provide evidence of nothing.
The social media censorship attempt is utterly hilarious in and of itself too. If there’s anything certain about the internet, it’s that censorship backfires spectacularly. If you really want something to go viral, try and keep it hidden.
Of course, Facebook and Reddit know this perfectly well
But if you’re in trouble with the government, banning small ineffective accounts looks like you’re doing something. The fact that it won’t actually achieve anything suits social media companies fine.
If you watched the media’s coverage of Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg getting grilled in US Congress, you’ll have missed the key development. Zuckerberg looked like an evil megalomaniac pretending to hide his intentions to rule the world. Or perhaps he was actually an android conducting the Turing Test.
But either way, all this is a misconception promulgated by the media. The reason for Zuckerberg’s strange behaviour, blank facial expressions, fake smiles and lack of knowledge about what his company does is simple. The questions were totally bizarre. They exposed that the US’ lawmakers are clueless to a spectacular extent about the basic functions of the internet. And how internet companies function.
My favourite questions was this one: “How do you sustain a business model in which users don’t pay for your services?”
Another lawmaker was unaware that Facebook already requires users to opt into the company’s private information sharing policies. As does just about every other internet product provider. In fact, I’m quite sure it’s a legal requirement. Imposed by the Congress that was asking Facebook to do what he already does…
A third senator was shocked to discover that, given Facebook keeps his personal data, it is theoretically possible for that data to be shared. This is a tautology. Of course it could be shared if it’s kept. But it isn’t shared, in the same way that your bank doesn’t share your financial information.
To be honest, I much prefer Russia’s troll farms to UK and US foreign policy. Far less people die that way. And you can opt out of social media, but not a bombing.
In the end, social media warfare is probably just in the exploratory stage. But it’s far from the only game in town when it comes to cyber warfare.
The troll farm under your desk
It’s not just social media that the Russian hysteria has infected. Our national infrastructure is being attacked too. The Telegraph reports:
Mr Godfrey, who monitors network intrusion for companies across the UK, said that he had spotted signs that our power is already under attack, pointing to a spike in power outages since Saturday morning.
Mr Godfrey said: “Power cuts have gone through the roof since we have attacked Syria. It looks like they are trying to attack the grid but it is so compartmentalised it is difficult. The outages seem small but when you look at the curve, it is flat and then rockets in the last few days.”
Power outages in parts of the UK as retaliation for striking Syria. Hmmm.
The latest pitch is that Russia is using your own internet router to conduct its nefarious activities. This is a bit like hacking your PC to make it look like the misbehaviour is coming from you instead of from Russia.
What I don’t quite understand is the motive in all this. Is Russia preparing for an invasion of the UK to occupy our valuable coal mines or enslave our population?
The only motive I can find is that hysteria is an industry in and of itself. Defence, politics and security are artificially created needs. They must constantly be justified by finding an enemy and hurling accusations. Resorting to Facebook posts is probably the most pathetic accusation you can hurl, which reveals what the Russians are really up to. Not much.
Still, in a world where Russia is supposedly fiddling with our energy infrastructure, the government will be forced to act. What’s the point of generating hysteria if you don’t do something about it? Voters won’t notice.
Energy security is a long-time favourite cause politicians like to promote in times like these. Especially when it comes to hysteria over Russia. Usually energy security is used to promote an invasion of another country to take hold of their energy reserves.
The good news is, a vast energy boom is about to take hold in Britain itself. The Russian drama may be just what it needs to get political backing.
Until next time,
Nick Hubble
Capital & Conflict
Related Articles:
- The investment power of politically incorrect
- The prospects of the US dollar
- They all roll over, but who falls out?
Category: Geopolitics