Commentary: Fighting Russian disinformation must be a team sport

Russian disinformation continues to poison U.S. politics via our social media platforms. As the tactics grow more sophisticated, our best defense may be building resilience rather than hoping to eliminate it.

Earlier this month, the Department of Justice announced two law enforcement actions relating to a covert Russian disinformation campaign. First was an indictment charging two Russian state media employees with engaging in a scheme that can best be described as laundering disinformation. By duping special media influencers into sharing Kremlin propaganda, the defendants were able to conceal the source of the lies.

According to the indictment, the two employees of RT, formerly known as Russia Today, paid almost $10 million to finance and direct a company in Tennessee to create online content “to shape ‘Western’ opinion.” That company, reported to be Tenet Media, in turn hired prominent right-wing influencers to publish videos on TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube that spread pro-Russian content. The indictment alleges that the videos aimed to weaken American opposition to Russian interests, such as the war in Ukraine. According to an analysis in Wired, the most common phrases were “Ukraine,” “misinformation,” “massive attack free speech” and “racist toward White people.” The influencers have said that they are victims of the scheme — or what Russians would call “useful idiots.” (RT issued a statement in response to the allegations that appeared to be a mocking denial.)

The second DOJ action disrupted a scheme by the Russian government to spread false narratives by impersonating American online media outlets, such as Fox News and the Washington Post. According to court documents, a group known as “Doppelganger” sought to influence the outcome of the 2024 presidential election, reduce international support for Ukraine, and undermine democracy. Doppelganger allegedly used artificial intelligence to generate content, fabricated influencers and engaged in “cybersquatting,” a method of registering a domain intended to replicate another domain to deceive internet users. The affidavit also alleged violations of money laundering and trademark laws.

These schemes show the evolution of state-backed disinformation campaigns since 2016, when the Russian Internet Research Agency created false social media personas to sow discord and influence that year’s presidential election. Using names such as “Blacktivist,” “Tenn_GOP” and “Army of Jesus,” Russian operatives paid for ads on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter (now known as X) to support the presidential campaign of Donald Trump and disparage Hillary Clinton, according to details released in a 2018 indictment.

By exposing the new schemes, the DOJ has revealed to the world that Russia is still at it. The Doppelganger affidavit explicitly alleges that the operations were directed by President Vladimir Putin, who spent much of his career learning the tradecraft of influence operations in the KGB.

Russia is a relentless adversary in information warfare. These efforts exploit our very freedoms by using our open communications and right to free speech to push false narratives that are harmful to our national security. And our laws have been slow to keep pace with controlling the ability to abuse social media and artificial intelligence.

In the absence of regulations that can prevent deception or label online propaganda, perhaps our best defense is to use education to inoculate the public from the mutating threat of disinformation.

The use of unwitting social media influencers may signal a Russian strategy to target younger users. We can protect our kids by following the example of Finland, which neighbors Russia and has been bombarded with disinformation for decades, and implementing media literacy into our schools. By teaching students to think critically about what they read, we can help them avoid being manipulated by foreign influence operations.

We should also educate adults through media literacy programs at public libraries and through bar associations and civic organizations. Too many adults fail to take even basic steps, such as checking to see that a news source is legitimate, looking for a second source to confirm a controversial story, and reading beyond the headline, which might barely resemble the story it accompanies.

And finally, we must refrain from going along with the con, even when it helps our side. Politicians on the right have been quick to criticize the charges as “weaponizing” criminal law. In a Truth Social post, Trump accused Vice President “Kamala Harris and her Department of Justice” of “resurrecting the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax.” Former Trump aide Stephen Miller accused the DOJ of “sham indictments” to interfere with the election. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, mocked the notion of Russian interference on X. Maybe they’re only acting in what they see as their self-interest — but Putin counts on self-interested politicians to advance Russia’s false narratives, stoke division, and weaken democracy.

Of course, having an informed electorate requires spirited debate within and across our political tribes, but that debate must be based on facts. To defeat Russia’s disinformation campaign, we must choose truth over tribe.

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This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Barbara McQuade is a professor at the University of Michigan Law school, a former U.S. attorney and author of Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America.