Perspective: DisinformationDisinformation Agents Are Targeting Veterans in Run-Up to 2020 Election
Disinformation campaigns are targeting U.S. veterans through social media, seeking to tap the group’s influential status in their communities and high voting turnout in order to influence elections and fuel discord. Katerina Patin writes that veterans present an ideal target for foreign actors. In addition to their social status and voting rate, veterans are also more likely to run for office and more likely to work in government than any other demographic.
Disinformation campaigns are targeting U.S. veterans through social media, seeking to tap the group’s influential status in their communities and high voting turnout in order to influence elections and fuel discord.
Katerina Patin writes in Coda Story that veterans present an ideal target for foreign actors. In addition to their social status and voting rate, veterans are also more likely to run for office and more likely to work in government than any other demographic.
Patin writes:
The congressional probe into 2016 election manipulation identified veterans as one of the groups micro-targeted by the Russian government. U.S. counter-intelligence officials warned of China’s “super aggressive” effort to recruit spies through fake accounts on LinkedIn last year. But until [Kristopher] Goldsmith [associate director for policy and government affairs at the Vietnam Veterans of America, or VVA] published a report in September specifically looking at disinformation and the military veteran community, no one has thoroughly researched the problem. As chief investigator at the VVA, a congressionally-chartered nonprofit, Goldsmith is the only investigator at any veteran organization in the U.S.
“Americans are still sort of amazingly unaware of the risks they face in cyberspace,” said James Andrew Lewis, who directs the technology program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington D.C.“We’ve spent the last 25 years thinking about how to protect critical infrastructure, water plants and electrical plants. And it turns out that wasn’t what the Russians were interested in. They were interested in hacking our brains.”
The social media pages highlighted in Goldsmith’s report zeroed in on pressure points likely to trigger emotional reactions from veterans. Posts on imposter pages published sensationalized accounts of vandalism at veteran memorials, fake stories about dramatic cuts to veteran benefits and polarizing political content. Memes paired images of military funerals or portraits of well known servicemen killed in combat with divisive messages. Favorite targets included Colin Kaepernick, Ilhan Omar and Elizabeth Warren. Others purported to show servicemen holding anti-immigration posters with messages like “Vets Before Illegals.”
“You’re looking for an audience that’s both susceptible and influential,” said Lewis, identifying those who “have a grievance, that may have a shared experience, that may be emotionally vulnerable.”
