From Russia with Disinformation

Viktor Szabo
Dr. Harry Edward Bailey
University of Miskolc
BTANN401SZM
2017.04.25.

From Russia with Lies
Examining the boundaries and purposes of Fake News and Alternative Facts

In this paper, we are going to look at the fake news controversy that hit the last American election that elected Donald J. Trump. But before we try to analyze it we need to understand some of the past techniques used by governments in the past to influence people, possibly in a negative way. Only afterwards I will analyze and provide sources of these problems, bring up examples that created these, elaborate on the aspect of news and try to conclude who is doing it for what reason. The paper will include a couple news sources that are in content controversial, such as InfoWars, Russia Today, Breitbart, foreign ran sources and FOX News.

Ever since the Bolshevik revolution that toppled the Russian Monarchy brought in a radical change in both political and social structure. This change directly lead later during the second world war to general distrust and rivalry between the USSR and the USA. This tension reached its height during the Cold War, intensifying in the forms of Space Race, Proxy Wars such as Vietnam and North Korea, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the threat of complete atomic annihilation.

The proliferation of disinformation is not a recent aspect of forcing the opposition to shift opinion and policies in different directions. Both the USA and the USSR used covert methods to influence countries and use them to further their own political and economic interests.

The importance of informing the population about news been a constant trend ever since the first newspaper was created, giving people the news they wanted to see. Often this is completely harmless, it informs the population of important information, news, things that happen all around the world and keeps our government and others to account, preventing them from derailing our democracies into autocracies.

But often information can be used as a weaponized tool to shift opinion of people, change votes, instigate hatred and create causes for war. Many news organizations adhere to the general view of their readers based on their own socio-political stance, this way everyone can find their own voice and opinion in the crowd of news and important information, whether you are a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian or a Green there are enough news sources to suit our needs.

The ever-increasing questionable political bias is causing a major shift in trust of public opinion of all spectrum of news sources. Most of these organizations exist to generate profit for their company and provide jobs for those working for them, Journalism is a very distinct profession in this aspect. These days there are multiple forms of journalism available, like Investigative Journalism, Citizen Journalism, Blogging an etc. With today’s widespread use of the Internet, access to such content become very wide spread creating a perfect platform for those wanting to turn a profit in one way or another.

Of course, political influence of news outlets must be examined here, because government funded news organizations are often biased and only transmit information to the viewer to reinforce a generalized information that is affecting the viewer. But this depends on a lot of factors if we are receptive to the idea what we are seeing in newspapers or in the TV. Recently the Russian government proliferated the usage of multiple news outlets across the world, such as Russia Today or Sputnik News, these all cover the hardcore ideology of the Russian Government and the Russian President, Vladimir Putin. The acquisition of news companies often creates an atmosphere for companies that they are required to create such news that goes against their own values right under the watching eyes of the government. If they refused to provide the content the government demands, their offices will be shut down, funds will be terminated from company accounts and journalists will lose their jobs.1 There is a wide array of weaponry in the hands of the Russian Government with what they can control the flow of news.

Citizen Journalism on the other hand is a bit more different. With recent progress done in online advertising provided as a service by Google or Bing often come under the spotlight of advertising questionable content, but now very recently this was turned against them because not just the advertised material was questionable but the website which was receiving funds for displaying these adverts, giving immense profits for not so legitimate news outlets that only existed to turn a profit, generate dissent, blackface politicians or whitewash opposition policies.2

According to MarketWatch, Google generated over $10,000 USD for some select Fake News outlets, this is a staggering number running under content that is highly questionable in material.3
When we are examining the motives behind these websites we often arrive to the conclusion that there must be some sort of political motivation behind the scenes that tries to adhere to one type of consumer, the easily biased and naive. Often these sites are sensationalist, satirical, overexaggerated or very degrading in content of their message.4 Often these websites are run from outside of the US in very obnoxious places like small towns in Macedonia or Georgia.5[a;b] Their aspiration is questionable, most often purely money is their reason but they aren’t stranger to wanting to further certain political candidate’s success, with the help of the Russian Government. Some websites were proven to have some type of link to funding sources coming from Russia6 which adhered to blackface Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton, focusing on aspects like her email scandal, the Benghazi attack and her lack of stamina running a presidency. When we are examining the numbers, it is apparent that more fake news organizations attempted to turn a profit on this presidential campaign than any before one, turning massive profits in just a small amount of time. Some of them didn’t care at all about the reality of their message they provided nor if the content has any truth.

Not only international elements are at play here. InfoWars in this perspective is a domestic disinformation news outlet that specializes in spreading information for those who are obsesses or susceptible to government conspiracies. Like the Sandy Hooks Elementary attack, which was constantly debunked as a government created conspiracy theory to give way for further control on gun regulations.

But when we look at the alt-right news sources such as Breitbart and try to analyze the content provided on the website we can finally see a form of pattern that in this case formalizes in a generalized perspective that pushes one type of agenda forward, the agenda of those whom the creators and writers of the website support, hard alt-right conservatives.

Both InfoWars and Breitbart provide controversial content in differing quality, we can call InfoWars sensationalist while Breitbart solely pushes political agenda. Even though, there is a slight hint of evidence on both websites that the influence of money already touched both sites interests, both sites run adverts and promote their own products for the readers which give them a rather large amount of funding in such ways that sometimes not obviously comes off as a political donation to keep the websites churning out content that is favourable for them.7

On the contrary, foreign websites run for profit or by foreign agents differ in some aspects than those run domestically, but often adhere to a schema that promotes the spread of their fake news.8
The primary method is to click baiting users, raising their interests and provoking an action that lands them on their websites, if a reader is receptive towards the information displayed in their news piece then basically they enforce a confirmation bias happening in the reader and this way false news stories become reality and will reinforce the already altered views of the reader.

The second method that further helps the spread of fake news is social media websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, it is often profiting for these sites9 to create adverts using Google AdSense or Facebook’s own advertising service, placing their news and opinions directly onto the front page of users when next time they refresh or log into the website. For those seeking a quick profit this is a very effective way of making money because those users arriving on their websites in large numbers will click on adverts and generate money for the websites.
The third tactic used by these sites are intensification of information this method includes multiple stylistic devices such as a sensationalist headline (such as a clickbait grade headline) placing highly relevant looking pictures, focusing on a certain aspect of the text and re-enforcing information over and over, if necessary using highly visualized descriptions in text. Often these are defamatory, carelessly uses such wording in its content that directly damages the subject.
When the website generates enough money it finally managed to reach its end goal to attract readers, and the fact that they don’t care about how they alter voter choice can be disregarded. Often these websites look professional or use certain content management system to display their news articles, such as WordPress, literally, starting up a fake news website is as simple as 1+1, anyone with a minor knowledge of how websites function can immediately start turning a profit on their investment.

Others could argue that the classification of disinformation not always qualifies as Fake News, because they often follow one agenda that they are trying to push forward, therefore it is questionable what exact classification these fall into.

Some other more problematic forms of fake news are foreign funded which solely exist to destabilize or promote a political party that is more favourable towards that foreign government, these types of fake news sites operating to provide content that directly attempts to change public opinion by either focusing on controversial aspects and repeating the content or by inventing conspiracy theories or lies to provoke a radical response from the readers.
Some of these methods can be covert types or first for the untrained eyes it might seem completely legitimate, a multi-billion dollars funded and designed website can be very convincing for those trying to look for confirmation of their own views. One good example is Russia Today.10 The operation of the TV channel similarly acts as a state television broadcasting the direct opinion and political views of the Russian Government. Often these can be very problematic to root out because when we are trying to enforce Freedom of the Press then we come to such issues whether such media groups are operating legally and legitimately under the law without violating it.

When a news media becomes a political weapon, it is directly utilized and operated in a way that actively attempts to convince its consumers about its message. The is usually done by actively taking part in multiple forms of journalism, when we are trying to create lies it must look good enough for people to accept that, and when our content is easily digested by our readers then we succeeded with our goal of implanting our fake world view into the reader’s mind that will affect political motivation and thinking.11

Many argue that this is not an issue because the press should not be constrained because everyone has the right to receive their source of news, even if this is in content and message can be questioned whether fully abides by standards of modern journalism and not acting just as a weapon of another country to push forward its own political agenda.12

Active control features can be clearly observed, even when we look at highly reputable organizations like Al-Jazeera, whenever it comes to criticizing their own government or any aspects of their country there are very strong forces that try to downplay these factors and defend the direct message of the government. The example for this is related to the worker scandals when foreign workers were kept in inhumane places the government used the channel to deflect the claims put forwards by the BBC.13 Not one news anchor in the past quit Russia Today’s US based agency citing concerns about editorial ideologies being forced on them this did shed some light on our concern on the legitimacy of the organization.
The same similar method is used by the Russians in this aspect, whether it is Russia Today or Sputnik News, we don’t see discussions about concentrations camps established for LGBTQ individuals persecuted by the Chechnya government and all inflammatory reports or news coming out from these areas are quickly silenced or not even put onto the news bulletin.

We must look at data of countries where freedom of the press is examined and put to a test,14 Russia is not a free country in this perspective because they actively attempt to silence the voices of those speaking against Vladimir Putin or the Russian Government. Independent news outlets are raided, bugged by the FSB (Russian Secret Service) daily. And if everything else fails, creative methods are invented to prevent their operation and close shop permanently15. Other conventional methods is the acquisition of these companies by members of the Russian Government, when a politician become a shareholder the news outlet almost immediately changes operational course under the thread of immediate closure and liquidation of their assets if they don’t adhere and submit to the required format.15

Western media outlets are more free in this perspective because often they can publish news that is controversial, they don’t even have to be afraid of reprisal by the government that could get them behind bars or executed right in the direct vicinity of the highest authority, like in Russia.15

Western media adheres to the values of modern democracies, and often these are violated and abused by others whom seek to destabilize peace and push through radial ideas to benefit others either financially, politically or militarily.

But does political message in fact an acceptable form of truth based on the implied views of those wanting to tell us what is the truth? This is debatable, fake news in this perspective can be called as alternative facts too because we are trying to counter an established truth with a potential lie that is not necessarily falls into the category of lying because it is our personal belief, everyone is entitled to their opinions but not to their own facts in this perspective because when we are actively trying to influence the lives of others by handing out information that is based on our own political views it can have deep rooting consequences that will affect the views and political choices of the general populace.

Therefore, in my opinion, we should try to understand that truth will not be overwritten by alternative views, let’s look at one example here: “If learning more languages helps delay Alzheimer disease then we shouldn’t let others influence our thinking by saying that Communists are hiding behind the disease and we should only speak our mother tongue to prevent the red plague from happening. “

In the above context, we can clearly see that there is a possible lie there, but if we would turn this into a political message, as how the American public was informed about weapons of mass destruction present in the arsenal of the late Saddam Hussein, we can clearly see this is just another political tool to change and re-formulate our opinion, so that we will be more inclined to support any military action done by our (US) government. In my opinion, a foreign government can easily utilize Fake News and Political Lies to influence our decision-making process, this is a dangerous precedent created by the Russian Government because they don’t even have to deny these claims to succeed with their attempts, everyone knows about it but no one can prove it. This type of disinformation is probably the miracle of modern democracy, where political ideology can be taken as a fact overriding the truth in all possible aspects.

Sources and Articles Used
1 Disassembling the Russian Media [1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/25/how-russia-independent-media-was-dismantled-piece-by-piece
2 Advertisement supported citizen journalism [2] https://www.poynter.org/2005/the-11-layers-of-citizen-journalism/69328/
3 Capital made off fake news via advertisers [3] http://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-person-makes-10000-a-month-writing-fake-news-2016-11-17
4 How to spot Fake News [4] http://www.factcheck.org/2016/11/how-to-spot-fake-news/
5 Georgian and Macedonian fake news websites [5(a,b)] https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/25/world/europe/fake-news-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-georgia.html?_r=0 (a) and https://www.wired.com/2017/02/veles-macedonia-fake-news/ (b)
6 Russian funded Fake News factories [6] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/russian-trolls-hilary-clinton-fake-news-election-democrat-mark-warner-intelligence-committee-a7657641.html
7 Possible political donations by Trump Campaign [7] https://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/breitbart-staffers-believe-trump-has-given-money-to-site-for?utm_term=.eolyLA83G#.sk4GpxB3r
8 The Fake News setup schema [8] http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/article/2017/apr/20/politifacts-guide-fake-news-websites-and-what-they/
9 Outrage caused by Facebook as fake news spread on it [9] https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/19/facebook-will-never-take-responsibility-for-fake-news/
10 Fake News from Russia [10] https://www.thelocal.se/20160727/concern-over-barrage-of-fake-russian-news-in-sweden
11 Government made Propaganda in Hungary [11] https://www.euractiv.com/section/freedom-of-thought/news/fake-news-another-weapon-in-orbans-illiberal-hungary/
12 Challenges of our times [12] http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170301-lies-propaganda-and-fake-news-a-grand-challenge-of-our-age
13 Creative domestic damage control’s presence in Al-Jazeera editorial [13] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/al-jazeera-block-article-slamming-saudi-arabian-human-rights-record-a6779596.html
14 World Press Freedom Index on Reporters without Borders [14] https://rsf.org/en/ranking
15 Disassembling the Media [15] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/25/how-russia-independent-media-was-dismantled-piece-by-piece
16 Dr. Tamas Vrauko (2009) Media Studies I., History of the Media, University of Miskolc