PerspectiveCorporate Defenses Against Information Warfare

Published 21 August 2019

When asked about Russian election interference during his congressional testimony last month, Robert Mueller said: “They’re doing it as we sit here.” To defend the nation against information warfare, the U.S. government has adopted a policy—by default, not by design—of relying on the private sector to police itself, with limited behind-the-scenes government assistance. Facebook’s website says: “Our detection technology helps us block millions of attempts to create fake accounts every day and detect millions more often within minutes after creation.” These numbers sound impressive, but they do not tell the whole story. To assess the effectiveness of company defenses, we must distinguish among three types of fake accounts: bots, fictitious user accounts, and impostor accounts. Russian agents have created and operated all three types of accounts.

 

When asked about Russian election interference during his congressional testimonylast month, Robert Mueller said: “They’re doing it as we sit here.” We now know that part of that interference includes a sophisticated disinformation campaign using social media platforms. David L. Sloss writers in Just Security that to defend the nation against information warfare, the U.S. government has adopted a policy—by default, not by design—of relying on the private sector to police itself, with limited behind-the-scenes government assistance. We do not know how well that policy is working. Congress should obtain information from Facebook, Google and others to find out.

Facebook’s websitesays: “Our detection technology helps us block millions of attempts to create fake accounts every day and detect millions more often within minutes after creation.” The company shut down more than 2 billion fake accountsin the first quarter of 2019. Similarly, Twitter closed about 70 million fake accountsbetween May and July of 2018. Google removed numerous “spam subscriptions” from YouTube in December 2018.

These numbers sound impressive, but they do not tell the whole story. To assess the effectiveness of company defenses, we must distinguish among three types of fake accounts: bots, fictitious user accounts, and impostor accounts. Bots are automated accounts that operate without significant human interventionafter the initial programming. Fictitious user accounts are non-automated accounts created in the name of a fictitious person who pretends to be a U.S. person. Impostor accounts are non-automated accounts created in the name of an actual U.S. person that are operated by a foreign agent who has stolen the identity of that U.S. person. Russian agents have created and operated all three types of accounts.