
The Russian “Firehose of Falsehood” Propaganda Model [pdf] - Red_Tarsius
https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/perspectives/PE100/PE198/RAND_PE198.pdf
======
yokisan
> The persuasive benefits that Russian propagandists gain from presenting the
> first version of events (which then must be dislodged by true accounts at
> much greater effort) could be removed if the true accounts were instead
> presented first.

Or at all. Just about every news outlet threw credibility away in a frenzy of
mass hysteria these last 18 months. There's simply few bastions of
impartiality left.

> corrections that provide an alternative story to help fill the resulting gap
> in understanding when false “facts” are removed.

So, like "alternative facts"?

> Our fourth suggestion for responding to Russian propaganda: Compete!

A bigger, better firehose! One _on the right side of history_ ™.

The sad reality is that people don't care about the truth nearly as much as
they care about information which validates their worldview. The market
acknowledges this and behaves accordingly.

Furthermore, not all truths are equally palpable and I'd argue that repeated
censorship of uncomfortable/offensive truths has caused a breach of trust so
wide that it has cast doubt on sources of information as a whole. See the
'Fake News' phenomenon.

It's from this set of experiences that people are lured to RT and
'alternative' sources of news. The next thing you know they're buying a years
supply of Survival Shield X-2 Nascent iodine on infowars.

------
plaguuuuuu
The strategy the article suggests is basically

1\. Don't argue with the disinfo trolls. Instead, counter disinformation
trolls with your own disinformation trolls.

2\. _" both NATO and the United States have a range of capabilities to inform,
influence, and persuade selected target audiences. Increase the flow of
persuasive information and start to compete, seeking to generate effects that
support U.S. and NATO objectives"_

3\. _" then jamming, corrupting, degrading, destroying, usurping, or otherwise
interfering with the ability of the propagan- dists to broadcast and
disseminate their messages could diminish the impact of their efforts."_

So basically create your own fake news, hire a tonne of social media shills
and finally, start blocking websites and banning any social media users that
disagree with the desired narrative. Scary :_)

~~~
monocasa
> both NATO and the United States have a range of capabilities to inform,
> influence, and persuade selected target audiences. Increase the flow of
> persuasive information and start to compete, seeking to generate effects
> that support U.S. and NATO objectives

Yeah, it's called JTRIG. There's a reason why Eglin Air Force Base was
declared 'the most reddit addicted city', and then the blog post was deleted.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160604042751/http://www.reddit...](https://web.archive.org/web/20160604042751/http://www.redditblog.com/2013/05/get-
ready-for-global-reddit-meetup-day.html)

~~~
justaguyonline
I can emphatically say that the post in question was not deleted. I don't know
why you would think that since you can visit the live post in question via the
wayback machine link you posted.

The mention of Eglin Air Force Base is preserved too, but I don't see any
connection between an Air Force base in the Florida panhandle and a unit that
belongs to the GCHQ in the United Kingdom.

------
krona
Maskirovka.

To me, this deliberate sowing of confusion in the mind of you enemy is a
continuation of well established Russian military doctrine that's gone in to
overdrive.

Around the time of MH17 there was a short radio documentary on Maskirovka on
the bbc:
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b050674y](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b050674y)

------
jamez1
I wonder if 'fake news' will become the next excuse to encroach on our
liberties just like how 'terrorism' is used.

~~~
m12k
It's almost elegant the way the Trump camp seized on the term 'fake news' that
was first used to classify this new brand of viral make-believe that
flourished among Trump-supporters on social media, and somehow turned it into
a catch all term to just dismiss any reporting that they deem unfavorable.
When you have an audience not accustomed to critical thinking or fact-
checking, there is almost no repercussion to making claims that are
demonstrably false, or dismissing things that are demonstrably true.
Everything is just opinion versus opinion. At this point, the fight isn't even
about policy anymore, it's about the very meaning of words, how we as humans
determine what reality is. The Last Week Tonight segment,
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xecEV4dSAXE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xecEV4dSAXE)
about how Trump gets his 'information' is fascinating - he's essentially
managed to have his own misinformation fed back to himself in a feedback loop.

------
simonsarris
It's worth also keeping in mind there may be _old_ Russian propaganda models
of 1930's memetic warfare still kicking around.

[http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=218](http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=218)

I'm not sure either of these should be called strictly Russian, in either
invention or execution, though.

------
guilhas
Hillary disagrees
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6sYB5d1Bu4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6sYB5d1Bu4)
As far as I'm concerned RT is as much propaganda as CNN, BBC, Chanel 4, Fox
news... All main news outlets lack real impartial ivestigative journalism,
that covers both sides of the arguments.

The interest for alternative, and sometimes less capable, media only exists
because of how biased and rotten the "real news" are.

~~~
CurtMonash
That is exactly the response propagandists try to elicit.

Congratulations -- you are an example of the modern form of "useful idiot".

~~~
guilhas
You don't look like a very useful one

