Fake News Techniques and Strategies

A significant amount of fake news circulated during the 2016 presidential elections in the United States was part of the disinformation campaign orchestrated by the Russian Internet Research Agency. Some cybersecurity experts and political analysts warn that this operation was crucial to the result for of the 2016 US elections, which led to Donald Trump’s presidency. Renee DiResta is one of these. She is director of the research at New Knowledge, a cybersecurity society working on disinformation on the social media who lead one of the two groups asked to investigate on Russian services influence in America by the US Senate. I interviewed her to learn more about the topic.

How long as it being going on? As to say: which is the oldest Internet Research Agency activity in America that you have acceded to?

How did this disinformation campaign work? Or, more generally, on what kind of tools does this influence network rely on?

The Internet Research Agency activity appeared on the majority of social platforms, and included website. The IRA used persona accounts that masqueraded as Americans, on all social platforms. They created and disseminated content, posting it to social platforms with large audiences so that mainstream media and American people alike would pick it up and spread it further themselves. This was run similarly to a social media marketing operation.

All your data and the report you have been asked for is about the Internet Research Archive activity, but have you found any link to other possible networks of influence? As to say: is it all about Russia?

How could we curb fake news? Ai? Debunking? Restoring trust? All of the above?

Restoring trust is paramount; it’s the long-term solution we need. It’s also one of the hardest things to do, because sowing division and eroding trust in reputable media — making people doubt what they know — are the primary goals of the state actors running these campaigns. Technology can help with detection of inauthentic post patterns and inauthentic accounts. Debunking is a real challenge; some of what’s presented is in the form of opinions. It’s hard to debunk a narrative that aligns with a person’s feelings on a topic. Preventing inauthentic content from spreading is easier than trying to address it after it’s out.

What do the private companies affected by disinformation campaigns, as Facebook, can really do for and why you think that this could not be enough?

The platforms have taken significant steps since early 2018; they are looking for evidence of covert campaigns around elections in particular, and both taking down content and disclosing the inauthentic pages as they find them. This is going to be an ongoing fight, and cooperation with researchers, civil society, and government is necessary for the long term.

What kind of regulation is needed to avoid disinformation campaigns? What can governments do?

Regulation creating oversight of tech platforms and updating the way that governments think about information operations (and how to deter them) are key.

Some fake news websites managers (i.e. fake news creator), interviewed on several occasion by different medias in the world, justified their action saying that they were “giving people what they want to read”. So my question is: in the disinformation campaign that you have analyzed, fake news resembled more to an inaccurate news filled with some little (but relevant) false, or to a completely and conscious false ?

There were some conspiracy theories and blatantly false stories, but a substantial quantity of the material involved factually accurate material presented with a particular slant — an opinion layered on top to make it fit the prevailing beliefs of the group it was targeted at. The most effective propaganda contains elements of truth, which is why it’s very difficult to fight influence operations on “truth-in-narrative” grounds.

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