Troll farms - modern information warfare

Not an honest bunch of media to be found

A troll farm, or troll factory, is typically an organized group of people that seek to interfere in political opinions and decision-making. They are the cornerstone of many countries’ modern military and political doctrines.

Unknown to a majority of the public, we witness the capabilities of trolls waging information warfare daily.

The evil Russian troll farms

The west often accuses Russia of using bot and troll farms to spread misinformation. For example, the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) was the center of a 2018 Department of Justice indictment for interfering with the 2016 American presidential elections and the 2018 midterm elections.

In February 2022, while the US government was warning the world of Russian troop buildups for an impending invasion, we saw reports of the shutdown of sizeable Russian bot farms.

After Russia’s special military operation (SMO) began, the banning of Russian media quickly followed, preventing the US and European public from viewing Russia’s version of events. As a result, the west hid Russia’s narrative from the western people. The alleged shutdown of five Russian disinformation farms provided further support.

If you search “what is a troll farm” on YouTube, you will find that most videos are alleged ex-Russian trolls. But, of course, there is no proof of these claims, and they are all posted by western media outlets.

Molding public viewpoints

What do these actions tell us?

First, the west views Russia as experts in propaganda by way of their media and troll farms. There is no way to fully control the narrative in the west and garner public support for the actions of NATO and EU governments other than to eliminate information coming from Russia.

By banning Russian outlets from social media and the airwaves, the west has removed Russia’s version of why they started their SMO, alleged offenses on their opponent’s side, and any potential NATO blame.

The only narrative left is that Russia made an “unprovoked and unjustified attack,” followed by statements from former presidents, world leaders, and western news outlets repeating the same narrative.

With public support galvanized, sanctions followed without considering the potential blowback on western economies. Western businesses pulled out of Russia, western countries removed or greatly simplified visa requirements, the public opened their arms to refugees, and money poured in to defend against Russia. Then, NATO stepped up its “end of international security” storyline.

US government and CIA-funded NGOs, such as the National Endowment for Democracy, hid records of specific funding projects from the public. They then increased reporting against the “autocratic” Russia and the fall of democracy. Follow that with Western-leaning publications saying we should blame Russia for all narratives against the western storyline.

Horrors – we are at the start of World War Three.

Western truth

However, perception in public does not equate to truth. Remember that information warfare aims to undercut and neutralize the opponent’s information and spread propaganda and misinformation to the public.

Remember the previously mentioned Russian IRA indicted for influencing the 2016 US elections? Rob Goldman, VP of advertising at Facebook, said that most Russian ad purchases happened after the presidential election. This information tells us that someone else wrote many stories about Russian trolls affecting the election.

Bring in the trolls

There are a large number of US troll farms doing the same thing they accuse Russians of doing. In addition, we have several alleged US, NATO, and western friendly government-funded information sources.

The Republicans have paid troll farms to cast doubt on the integrity of the mail-in ballots, the election process, and COVID vaccines. The firm that did the misinformation campaigns also has a UK branch that influences British politics. Similar digital services that do “audience targeting” were hired by both the Clinton and Trump campaigns.

The US government has been waging cyber wars against countries such as Iran, Russia, and North Korea for quite some time.

We also have Polish troll farms working for Polish public television, politicians, and the Polish military. In addition, troll farms are working out of Madagascar, Macedonia, Kosovo, India, China, and Saudi Arabia, to mention a few others. And let’s not forget that the Israelis were also influencing US elections.

And in the west’s most challenging narrative to date, the current Russian SMO is such a vast propaganda story that they have difficulty coordinating the disinformation attacks.

Journalists are de-platformed and censored in trying to report what they see in the conflict. But even European journalists call for this censorship to end. As Sonja van den Ende, a Dutch investigative journalist, said, “I saw the war, yet we cannot speak the truth. We are censored in Europe.”

Short of it is, you cannot take mass media, nor social media, at face value regardless of the origin.

How to spot trolls

See this video for what a troll farm is, how they work, and how to spot them:

In addition, Kaspersky Labs published a great article on spotting fake news. And beware of news rating tools like Newsguard online, as they also tend to have a bias.

Beyond that, the best advice I can give is to load up a VPN, look at alternate sources, and use critical thinking to separate the grain from the chaff. And follow good independent journalists like Scott Ritter.

Join us live with special guest Eva Bartlett on Tuesday, November 29 at 3 PM EST.