Ignatius: Russia's 'troll farms' have weaponized the internet
Imagine American politics for a moment as a laboratory experiment. A foreign adversary (let’s call it “Russia”) begins to play with the subjects, using carrots and sticks to condition their behavior. The adversary develops tools to dial up anger and resentment inside the lab bubble, and even recruits unwitting accomplices to perform specific tasks.
This 21st-century political dystopia isn’t drawn from a “spec script” that just landed in Hollywood. It’s a summary of two reports on Russia’s Internet Research Agency published this week by the Senate Intelligence Committee. The studies describe a sophisticated, multi-level Russian effort to use every available tool of our open society to create resentment, mistrust and social disorder.
For a century, Russian intelligence agents have been brilliant at creating false fronts and manipulating opposition groups. Now, thanks to the internet, they seem to be perfecting these dark arts.
Even as it meddles abroad, the Kremlin has just introduced new legislation to block its own information space from foreign penetration. Under the new law, reported this week, Russia could control all internet and message traffic into the country, block any anonymous websites and, in a crisis, manage the Russian web from a central command point.
Put the two halves of Russian behavior together and you have a portrait of the modern information-war battlespace, as conceived by Moscow: A wide-open America (and Europe, too) that can be manipulated by orchestrated propaganda campaigns that exploit every racial, ethnic and political division; and a closed-off Russia, where the authorities can muzzle any hint of dissent.
The machinations of the Internet Research Agency were first detailed in a February indictment of 13 Russian operatives by special counsel Robert Mueller. Now, we have a detailed narrative of the breadth and depth of the Russian meddling effort.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/ignatius-russias-troll-farms-have-weaponized-the-internet/?utm_source=DAILY+HERALD&utm_campaign=7c892e26e0-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d81d073bb4-7c892e26e0-228635337
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