[Air-L] My new article on the information war...

[Dr. Emma Briant]

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you are keeping well. It's been quite a month for badly-thought
through plans aimed at defeating 'disinformation'.

Almost immediately after I published my article
<https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2022/04/28/how-russia-benefits-from-ill-informed-social-media-policies/>on
how social media companies' efforts to tackle falsehood on Ukraine were
being gamed by Russia, the US Department of Homeland Security announced its
ill-fated new Disinformation Governance Board. It backfired predictably,
and lasted just three weeks, shut down by right-wing lies and trolling. I
commented
<https://www.reuters.com/world/us/bidens-counter-disinformation-executive-resigns-after-few-weeks-job-2022-05-18/>
for Reuters saying "this was a major strategic error of the
administration," and that it was "utterly abhorrent" that Nina Jankowicz, a
disinformation scholar who headed up the agency "had been turned into a
punching bag".

This whole episode though has coincided with another bad idea - the release
of a conspiracy themed recruitment video by the US Army, which
highlights its intent to use deception in the information war. I write
about this and the issues this raises, for the military and indeed us all,
here:

'How a new US Army video recruiting for deception risks fuelling conspiracy
theories <https://www.patreon.com/posts/66831621>'

I hope you will find it an important read - do share the link with anyone
you think will be interested in the subject. We badly need thoughtful
expertise behind the response to this information war - otherwise doing
something unhelpful can often be worse than doing nothing at all.

Best wishes,
Emma

-- 
Dr Emma L Briant

Owner: Maven of Persuasion LLC
Fellow at Central European University's Center for Media, Data and Society
Associate at University of Cambridge, Center for Financial Reporting &
Accountability
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/emmalbriant
Website: www.emma-briant.co.uk

Author of: *Propaganda and Counter-Terrorism: Strategies for Global
Change *from
Manchester University Press
Co-Author of: *Bad News for Refugees* with Prof. Greg Philo and Dr. Pauline
Donald from Pluto Press.
Sign up for my Newsletter
<http://emma-briant.co.uk/sign-up-for-important-updates/>!
Follow me on Twitter @emmalbriant