The writer is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a think-tank
When Sweden’s Navy tried to hunt down a suspected enemy submarine in the Stockholm archipelago eight years ago, its efforts were ridiculed by Russian media and officials, who trolled their armed forces chief and accused him of pursuing a “phantom” vessel. Since then, hostile states including Russia, China and Iran have increased their use of disinformation and online propaganda to amplify anti-vax sentiment and foment political tensions in Europe and the US. Concerned about the potential for this to undermine democracy, Sweden has just launched an agency for psychological defence. Other countries would do well to follow its example.
Mikael Tofvesson, head of the new agency’s operative division, says aggressors are increasingly trying to sow division by targeting areas of public concern such as crime, Covid vaccinations, the government’s response to the pandemic, and immigration. “These are low-intensity campaigns that are constantly in operation, and when a specific issue is in the news the activity increases,” he tells me.
As many countries have found, the pandemic has spawned a new breed of disinformation, which has spread as rampantly as the virus. This is not only from usual suspects but also from new actors, who are copying Moscow and Beijing’s methods. Private sector organisations are using a commercial offering known as “disinformation as a service” to conduct malign influence operations against their competitors.
The results are alarmingly obvious. Disputes about Covid-19 and the vaccines to fight it are already dividing populations. And just as the minority of people who refuse vaccines undermine wider efforts to stamp out the virus, a minority of citizens can ruin their countries’ resilience against adversaries by believing the damaging falsehoods spread by the other side. The rumour unleashed by Russia’s KGB in the 1980s that the US army created HIV — which is still in circulation now — shows the lasting harm of an eye-catching campaign. The Covid pandemic has been fuelled by the fact many people believe anti-vax disinformation and distrust messaging from their own governments. Just imagine the effect that incendiary disinformation could have on the current stand-off between Russia and Nato.
Public trust in the government is the Achilles heel of western democracies seeking to defend themselves against innovative adversaries. Disinformation aimed at weakening public confidence in its military forces or political leadership can have a potent destabilising effect. The US’s deep social and ideological divisions may be rooted in its domestic political history, but Moscow’s disinformation campaign ahead of the 2016 presidential election helped to sow doubt about America’s democratic institutions.
The Swedish Psychological Defence Agency will monitor malign influence by exposing both the aggressors and their methods. I believe it should go further, by launching information counter-strikes against the offending country’s ruling elite. In future, Nato and its allies could respond to disinformation campaigns by revealing some of the overseas properties owned by senior officials in the hostile country.
But as with Covid, the most important task in psychological defence is to inoculate the population against believing false information — a job that Sweden’s new agency will also handle. This involves teaching the public how to verify information. A citizenry able to distinguish truth from falsehoods is vital, not just from a national security perspective but for protection from more everyday threats such as quack cures peddled on the internet.
Other countries, too, should show they’re serious about fighting the disinformation virus and immunising against it. Otherwise it will undermine our societies and render even the most sophisticated military defences useless.
Article text if you can't traverse the paywall:
Opinion Misinformation
Psy-ops are a crucial weapon in the war against disinformation
Sweden’s new psychological operations agency will attack falsehoods that spread online like a virus
Russia’s disinformation campaign ahead of the 2016 presidential election sowed doubt about US democratic institutions © Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg
Elisabeth Braw January 11 2022
The writer is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a think-tank
When Sweden’s Navy tried to hunt down a suspected enemy submarine in the Stockholm archipelago eight years ago, its efforts were ridiculed by Russian media and officials, who trolled their armed forces chief and accused him of pursuing a “phantom” vessel. Since then, hostile states including Russia, China and Iran have increased their use of disinformation and online propaganda to amplify anti-vax sentiment and foment political tensions in Europe and the US. Concerned about the potential for this to undermine democracy, Sweden has just launched an agency for psychological defence. Other countries would do well to follow its example.
Mikael Tofvesson, head of the new agency’s operative division, says aggressors are increasingly trying to sow division by targeting areas of public concern such as crime, Covid vaccinations, the government’s response to the pandemic, and immigration. “These are low-intensity campaigns that are constantly in operation, and when a specific issue is in the news the activity increases,” he tells me.
As many countries have found, the pandemic has spawned a new breed of disinformation, which has spread as rampantly as the virus. This is not only from usual suspects but also from new actors, who are copying Moscow and Beijing’s methods. Private sector organisations are using a commercial offering known as “disinformation as a service” to conduct malign influence operations against their competitors.
The results are alarmingly obvious. Disputes about Covid-19 and the vaccines to fight it are already dividing populations. And just as the minority of people who refuse vaccines undermine wider efforts to stamp out the virus, a minority of citizens can ruin their countries’ resilience against adversaries by believing the damaging falsehoods spread by the other side. The rumour unleashed by Russia’s KGB in the 1980s that the US army created HIV — which is still in circulation now — shows the lasting harm of an eye-catching campaign. The Covid pandemic has been fuelled by the fact many people believe anti-vax disinformation and distrust messaging from their own governments. Just imagine the effect that incendiary disinformation could have on the current stand-off between Russia and Nato.
Public trust in the government is the Achilles heel of western democracies seeking to defend themselves against innovative adversaries. Disinformation aimed at weakening public confidence in its military forces or political leadership can have a potent destabilising effect. The US’s deep social and ideological divisions may be rooted in its domestic political history, but Moscow’s disinformation campaign ahead of the 2016 presidential election helped to sow doubt about America’s democratic institutions.
The Swedish Psychological Defence Agency will monitor malign influence by exposing both the aggressors and their methods. I believe it should go further, by launching information counter-strikes against the offending country’s ruling elite. In future, Nato and its allies could respond to disinformation campaigns by revealing some of the overseas properties owned by senior officials in the hostile country.
But as with Covid, the most important task in psychological defence is to inoculate the population against believing false information — a job that Sweden’s new agency will also handle. This involves teaching the public how to verify information. A citizenry able to distinguish truth from falsehoods is vital, not just from a national security perspective but for protection from more everyday threats such as quack cures peddled on the internet.
Other countries, too, should show they’re serious about fighting the disinformation virus and immunising against it. Otherwise it will undermine our societies and render even the most sophisticated military defences useless.