NEW RUSSIAN MESSAGING MANEUVERS...
Moscow is taking new aim at internet platforms and communications tools as part of a fresh clampdown on the flow of information into and out of the Russian Federation. One reported line of effort on the part of the Kremlin is to produce a new "national messenger" to take the place of WhatsApp, ahead of an anticipated ban on the popular communications platform this Fall. The Russian-origin service, which is being developed by the VK corporation, will reportedly involve upgrades to an existing messaging app, TamTam, already available to domestic web users.
Nor is WhatsApp the only messaging app at risk in Russia. ROSKOMNADZOR, Russia's official state media regulator, has formally blocked the ultra-secure Signal messenger, citing violations of domestic legislation designed to prevent the use of such communications tools for "terrorist and extremist purposes." (Ukrainska Pravda, August 9, 2024; The Moscow Times, August 9, 2024)
...AND A KREMLIN COVERUP?
What lies behind Russia's most recent informational blackout? In recent days, online services like Telegram, WhatsApp and Skype have all gone offline for Internet users in Russia. Officially, the Kremlin is assigning blame to Ukraine's recent military incursion into the Kursk region, which caught the country's military flat-footed. Russia's state media censor, ROSKOMNADZOR, has issued a statement to the effect that the disruptions are linked to a DDoS (distributed denial of service) cyberattack, ostensibly related to – and perpetrated by – Ukraine. Russian experts and activists, however, believe the blackout is related to a different culprit: the Kremlin itself. According to specialists like Sarkis Darbinyan of digital rights watchdog Roskomsvoboda, the outage was caused by a "centralized effort" that appears to be very similar to official attempts to block social media app Telegram back in 2018. (Meduza, August 21, 2024)
[EDITOR'S NOTE: Darbinyan and other experts are justified in their suspicions. For years, the Russian government attempted to block Telegram before deciding that doing so was "infeasible." Now, however, the sudden Ukrainian offensive – and the lapses in decisionmaking and intelligence that have allowed Ukrainian forces to remain entrenched on Russian soil – represents a very public black eye for the Kremlin. As such, authorities in Moscow have a vested interest in making scrutiny of the ongoing campaign by Kyiv as difficult as possible.]
IRAN'S AI-DRIVEN DISINFO
The Islamic Republic has been running a covert influence operation designed to manipulate U.S. public opinion. The effort, uncovered by tech firm OpenAI, involved "a cluster of ChatGPT accounts that were generating... content focused on a number of topics — including commentary on candidates on both sides in the U.S. presidential election – which it then shared via social media accounts and websites." The impact of the campaign, OpenAI says, was limited. Nevertheless, it reveals what amounts to an intricate attempt to manipulate foreign public sentiment for geopolitical purposes. "Our investigation revealed that this operation used ChatGPT for two purposes: generating long-form articles and shorter social media comments," the artificial intelligence pioneer notes. "The first workstream produced articles on U.S. politics and global events, published on five websites that posed as both progressive and conservative news outlets. The second workstream created short comments in English and Spanish, which were posted on social media." (OpenAI, August 16, 2024)
GIVING IRANIAN PROPAGANDA A PASS
Iran is attempting to influence opinion – both at home and abroad – in other ways as well. Among its most potent tools is IRIB, the official Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting agency, which is used by the Iranian government to promote its priorities and spin global events to domestic audiences – and which, since October 7th, has produced a steady diet of anti-Israel, anti-Semitic and extremist content across a range of platforms. IRIB also controls PressTV, a television outlet that has been identified as engaged in spreading disinformation to U.S. audiences ahead of the upcoming 2024 presidential election.
At least for the time being, though, the Islamic Republic still has a free pass to do so. Earlier this month, the Biden administration notified Congress that it was waiving sanctions originally imposed on IRIB as part of the 2012 Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act and subsequently enacted by the White House in February 2013. That bill includes provisions designed to limit IRIB's access to "ground connectivity services," "fiber optic connections outside of Iran," and "satellite capability" to spread its messaging. The Biden administration issued a similar waiver, granting IRIB greater access to connectivity technology, back in February 2023. The most recent waiver, however, is the first one to be granted since October 7th and the ensuing Israel-Hamas war, and since the ramp-up of Iranian disinformation targeting the American public. (Washington Free Beacon, August 19, 2024)