Operation InfeKtion: How Russia Perfected the Art of War | NYT Opinion
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters recommend it as a clear explanation of how disinformation campaigns work and where today's tactics came from.
What it is
A New York Times Opinion documentary tracing Soviet and KGB disinformation, from the 1980s AIDS origin hoax to modern campaigns like Pizzagate. It features former KGB officers and the people who tried to counter the lies.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 5 different months, 2019 to 2022.
What Hacker News said
Recommends CharlesColeman · 2019-11 · on “Leaked Files Expose How China Organized Mass Detentions of Muslims”
> I don't understand why the BDS movement against Israel gets so much attention when stuff like this, or worse, regularly occurs in China. The reason could be echoes of old Soviet influence campaigns directed against Israel [1] [2]. Once you get an idea lodged in the public mind, it takes on a life of its own (kinda like the trope of the AI weapon that fights on even after its makers are dead). [1] [LINK] [2] This is a good presentation of Soviet disinformation tactics and strategy: [LINK] (youtube link: [this video] )
Recommends CharlesColeman · 2019-12 · on “New disclosures to our archive of state-backed information operations”
> I think the best thing that can be done is wait 1-2 generations; by then nobody will believe anything they see in the media or in social networks. That's not the best thing, that's the worst thing . The goal of disinformation campaigns is to make people so distrustful and confused that the adversary's social cohesion is compromised to the point where they become disorganized and less able to respond to threats. This New York Times video explains it very well: [this video] .
Recommends ancarda · 2020-11 · on “Moderna Covid vaccine candidate almost 95% effective, trials show”
Yes it was. We've had disinformation since at-least the cold war. Probably the best example is the idea that AIDS was created by the U.S. government. The New York Times made a great documentary on disinformation: [this video] Well worth a watch IMO
Recommends prox · 2022-03 · on “Putin says Western sanctions are akin to declaration of war”
This NYT opinion piece can fill some gaps : [this video] From there you can search up some terms and periods mentioned in that video.
Recommends prox · 2022-09 · on “Ask HN: What’s Going on in Beijing and to Xi Jinping?”
Lots of hoaxes are often posted to small outlets in the hope it will be picked up by bigger outlets. On Youtube checkout [this video] , a look into how hoaxes are started from the 80s onwards.
Cites ardy42 · 2019-01 · on “Removing Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior from Russia”
> Wow, a grand total of 75 user accounts, and $130 000 of ads. > How is this anything but a drop in the ocean? It's the tip of the iceberg. You're ignoring second order effects. The people those accounts influence will influence others. Russian agents might have written the first few disinformation articles claiming the US Government created AIDS to attack blacks and gays [1], but once they got the ball rolling on that meme, others did the rest of the work to spread it for them. [1] [this video]
Cites ardy42 · 2020-05 · on “New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data”
> I had to look up "submarine pieces" are, but they don't seem at all related to the effects of advertising on what editorial teams write about. In my experience that just sounds like shoddy journalism, and editors shouldn't be letting that pass (even though it happens). What did you find? I assumed the term meant something like a sponsored-content advertorial, but after actually Googling it, it looks like the term isn't a common one. All I get are hits about Grand Theft Auto V and Peter Madsen. It seems like the term stems from this article ( [LINK] ). If that's correct, I'm inclined to agree that it's just shoddy journalism, and the better publications don't let it through: > Different pub
Cites ardy42 · 2021-01 · on “Twitter sued for allegedly refusing to remove child porn”
> Do you think the NYPost fabricated the existence of the lawsuit? As far as I can tell, the lawsuit really does exist. Straight up fabrication is not the only way to disinform, and it's in fact it's a pretty shitty way to do it, since it means your disinformation collapses at the slightest scrutiny. To make fabrication effective, the fabrication needs to be laundered to give it credibility (see [this video] ), which takes time and effort. A more effective way to disinform is to pluck out a true story that's not representative and amplify or twist it. That will seem more credible to those who give it just a little scrutiny, even if it's just as wrong as a fabrication in some ways. In this case, i