Messing with the Enemy:

Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians and Fake News

by Clint Watts

Review by Dave Gamrath

One-liner: In Messing with the Enemy, author Clint Watts, a counterterrorism and cybersecurity expert, describes how social media is being used to successfully attack democracy in America, and how this trend will only worsen with the advance of artificial intelligence, machine learning and sophisticated fake audio and video content.

Book Review:

The book’s title, Messing with the Enemy, derives from Watt’s using social media as a counterterrorism measure. Watts has spent years “messing” with al-Qaeda, ISIS and other terrorist organizations in his work for the US military (Watts is a West Point graduate) and as a private consultant. Watts gives many examples of how terrorists have used Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr and other social media platforms to dramatically expand their propaganda and recruiting efforts. Watts has used these same platforms to mess with terrorists and weaken them. Watts states that the advent of social media was one of two fortuitous events that allowed the advance of global terrorism (the other event being the US “calamitously invading Iraq, fracturing and destabilizing a nation in the heart of the Muslim World”). Watts gives a detailed history of how the use of social media has evolved within terrorist organizations and how it is being used today.

Watts then jumps into Russia’s extensive efforts to use social media to interfere in multiple western democracies, and in particular America. “Active measures” is the tagline for the Russian campaign to defeat the West “through the force of politics, rather than the politics of force.” Putin, utilizing his KGB background, moved from trying to defeat the US from the outside-in towards collapsing the US from the inside-out. Watts states that Vladimir Putin’s propagandists have achieved stunning success in mind manipulation, and that their tactics are being duplicated by authoritarian politicians everywhere “to overwhelm democratic audiences with waves of conflicting information – fake news – designed to manipulate audiences for a hidden puppet master.” Watts goes into significant detail on tactics being utilized, including troll armies consisting of hecklers (who drive wedge issues), honeypots (who try to compromise adversaries) and hackers (who hack to influence, not just to steal). Also significant are bots: artificial accounts that emulate real people and can rapidly spread falsehoods and amplify fake news and misinformation. A common Russian goal is to get people to question everything. “If you can’t trust anyone, then you’ll believe anything.” Making us fearful is another goal, for fear lowers our ability to distinguish fact from fiction. Typically, the intent of Russian activists isn’t to necessary take a side on an issue, but rather to sow discord. Thus, the Russians will take both sides of liberal and conservative issues.

Overt Russian-sponsored state media is known as “white” propaganda. Media established in foreign countries by Russia is known as “gray” propaganda. “Black” propaganda includes covert actions by Russia to plant false stories that appear to come from a local source. Through these colorful efforts, Russians share and recycle conspiracy issues, craft misinformation and redirect attention to mislead Americans and get us fighting with each other

Russia has multiple broad goals from these efforts. One is to shift focus from Russian’s own domestic issues towards Western social problems and the flaws of democracy. Another is to weaken support for the US government and its institutions. Putin is also trying to make Russia more popular within the US. Polls now show that Putin’s favorability rating has increased 166 percent since 2015 amongst Republicans, and 92 percent amongst Independents. Amongst all Americans, Putin’s favorability has double in just two years, even though he has launched the greatest assault against our democracy in history.

Russian strives to identifying individuals who are ripe for influence and manipulation towards Russian goals. Russian strategists call these people “useful idiots” who are typically driven by fame and fortune. Watts describes in detail Russian efforts to sway the 2016 election towards Trump. Trump classically fits the bill as a useful idiot for the Russians. Russian efforts to sway the election focused on “creating and sustaining a narrative of corruption, criminality and conspiracy that clouded the Clinton campaign from start to finish.” Watts states that “the Russians didn’t have to hack the election machines; they hacked American minds.” Watts doesn’t believe that Trump won solely because of the Russians, but that Russian efforts were one of multiple factors leading to a Trump victory, and without the Russians, Trump would not have won. Russia continues their efforts today to divide Americans, engaging in campaigns to pit us against each other. They are doing the same in other Western Democracies, including France, Germany and Britain.

With the rise of social media, more Americans get news from social media than mainstream media. Fake news has exploded. Watts believes social media is tearing the world apart. As social media users, we indicate our preferences, and create what Watts labels “preference bubbles”. We become digital tribes sorting ourselves into our preference groups and making decisions based on group-think. Russia sees this as a “dream come true” in that we voluntarily provide them all the information they need to manipulate us as they work to destroy our democracy.

So, what should one do? Watts stresses the obvious: be very cautious when online. “Treat everything as if the whole world is watching” and thoroughly scrub your online sources to avoid getting trapped into false news.

Reading Watt’s book put a pit in my stomach, seeing how easy it is to manipulate our society. Will Facebook and other social media companies finally step up and invest to counter these attacks? Will our government force them to? Clearly not with the Trump Administration in charge. Hopefully America wakes up to this threat to our democracy.

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