Web brigades
Encyclopedia
The web brigades is a conspiracy theory
that says there exist online teams of commentators linked to Russian security services that participate in political blog
s and Internet forums to promote disinformation
and prevent free discussions of undesirable subjects. Allegations of the existence of web brigades were made in the article "The Virtual Eye of the Big Brother" by French
journalist Anna Polyanskaya in April, 2003, in US
online media Vestnik Online.
An article "Conspiracy theory" by Alexander Yusupovskiy on 25 April 2003, published in Russian online media Russian Journal
, edited by Russian politologist Gleb Pavlovsky
, criticized Polyanskaya's theory of web brigades as an attempt at creating myths by people claiming to be Russian liberal thinkers in a response to the massive "sobering up" of the Russian people. A point was made that the observed behaviour of forum participants may be explained without a theory of FSB-affiliated brigades.
It was mentioned in the 2007 sociological research of large groups in Russian society by the RIO-Center, the belief in the existence of web-brigades is widespread in RuNet. Authors say "it's difficult to say whether hypothesis of existence of web-brigades corresponds to reality", but acknowledge that users professing views and methods ascribed to members of web-brigades may be found at all opposition forums of RuNet.
The expression "red web-brigades" (Красные веб-бригады) used by Anna Polyanskaya as a title to her article is a pun with "Red Brigades
".
In February 2009 Russian opposition activist Tatyana Korchevnaya revealed her personal account as an insider in an Internet group, which used methods resembling those of ascribed to web-brigades, but whose goals were entirely different: instead of supporting Putin's regime, members of that group combated defenders of the regime.
In March 2011, The Guardian
published an article named "US spy operation that manipulates social media", describing a new initiative of the US military on influencing social media sites. The manipulation program includes "using fake online personas
" to "spread pro-American propaganda
". The US Centcom comments that the US-based Facebook
and Twitter
networks are not targeted by the program, as the US laws prohibit US state agencies from spreading propaganda among the US citizens.
was described in 2003 by a French journalist Anna Polyanskaya (a former assistant to assassinated Russian
politician Galina Starovoitova
), French journalist Andrey Krivov and US programmer and political activist Ivan Lomako. They claimed there exist organized and professional "brigades", composed of ideologically and methodologically identical personalities, who were working in popular liberal
and pro-democracy
Internet forums and Internet newspapers of RuNet
.
The activity of Internet teams appeared in 1999 and were organized by the Russian state security service
, according to Polyanskaya. According to authors, about 70% of audience of Russian Internet were people of generally liberal views prior to 1998–1999, however sudden surge (about 60–80%) of "antidemocratic" posts suddenly occurred at many Russian forums in 2000.
(Russian Parliament upper house) published in 2003 an article "Conspiracy theory" in Russian Journal
with criticism of theory of web brigades.
Yusupovskiy's points included:
Sergey Golubitsky, journalist of Russian IT-related magazine Computerra
commented on the story in July 2008:
from the Other Russia list, a former United Civil Front
coordinator of the Primorsky Krai
, supporter of Trepashkin
and Khodorkovsky, participant of protest demonstrations, an author of the top tenth political blog of 2008 confessed in February 2009 in her blog that she was a member of an organization of Russia's "discontented", aimed to run a mass Internet campaign to discredit the authorities.
The project was coordinated by a Moscow-based manager, whose name Tatyana did not reveal. The goal of the participants was massive Internet campaigning, disputing those who were contented with their living in Russia, advertising Kasparov and Dissenters March
es, and talking about atrocities of the "bloody regime".
The participants used multiple nicknames to combat their opponents.
Korchevnaya considered such scheme abnormal: "I believe that if someone is afraid to say what they think out loud from their own names then they are not a free person – it's as if they're playing for both teams." She explained her confession with getting tired of the lie of those who she sincerelly trusted before. The other reason was a concern for herself:
According to an anonymous source Tatyana referenced to, after she left the project it was "launched on a larger scale than was planned at the start", with participants "planning to ditch their real life jobs and embark on this project full time, especially now that they are going to get paid for it".
to spread pro-American propaganda on social networking sites based outside of the US.
The US government signed a $2,8m contract with the Ntrepid
web-security company to develop a specialized software, allowing agents of the government to post propaganda on "foreign-language websites".
Main characteristics of the software, as stated in the software development request, are:
The US government "psy-ops warriors" are banned by the US laws to spread propaganda among US citizens, and the US military said the US-based Facebook and Twitter would not be targeted by web-brigades. At the same time, Isaac R. Porche, a researcher at the RAND Corp. claims it would not be easy to exclude US audiences, when dealing with internet communications.
Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
that says there exist online teams of commentators linked to Russian security services that participate in political blog
Political blog
A political blog is a common type of blog that comments on politics. In liberal democracies the right to criticize the government without interference is considered an important element of free speech...
s and Internet forums to promote disinformation
Disinformation
Disinformation is intentionally false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately. For this reason, it is synonymous with and sometimes called black propaganda. It is an act of deception and false statements to convince someone of untruth...
and prevent free discussions of undesirable subjects. Allegations of the existence of web brigades were made in the article "The Virtual Eye of the Big Brother" by French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
journalist Anna Polyanskaya in April, 2003, in US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
online media Vestnik Online.
An article "Conspiracy theory" by Alexander Yusupovskiy on 25 April 2003, published in Russian online media Russian Journal
Russian Journal
Russian Journal may refer to one of the following*A Russian Journal, a book by John Steinbeck*Russian Journal, a book by Andrea Lee *Russian Journal , a Russian online publication...
, edited by Russian politologist Gleb Pavlovsky
Gleb Pavlovsky
Gleb Olegovich Pavlovsky is a Russian national, political scientist . He was an adviser of the Presidential Administration of Russia until April 2011. During the Soviet times he was prosecuted as a dissident....
, criticized Polyanskaya's theory of web brigades as an attempt at creating myths by people claiming to be Russian liberal thinkers in a response to the massive "sobering up" of the Russian people. A point was made that the observed behaviour of forum participants may be explained without a theory of FSB-affiliated brigades.
It was mentioned in the 2007 sociological research of large groups in Russian society by the RIO-Center, the belief in the existence of web-brigades is widespread in RuNet. Authors say "it's difficult to say whether hypothesis of existence of web-brigades corresponds to reality", but acknowledge that users professing views and methods ascribed to members of web-brigades may be found at all opposition forums of RuNet.
The expression "red web-brigades" (Красные веб-бригады) used by Anna Polyanskaya as a title to her article is a pun with "Red Brigades
Red Brigades
The Red Brigades was a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organisation, based in Italy, which was responsible for numerous violent incidents, assassinations, and robberies during the so-called "Years of Lead"...
".
In February 2009 Russian opposition activist Tatyana Korchevnaya revealed her personal account as an insider in an Internet group, which used methods resembling those of ascribed to web-brigades, but whose goals were entirely different: instead of supporting Putin's regime, members of that group combated defenders of the regime.
In March 2011, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
published an article named "US spy operation that manipulates social media", describing a new initiative of the US military on influencing social media sites. The manipulation program includes "using fake online personas
Sockpuppet (Internet)
A sockpuppet is an online identity used for purposes of deception. The term—a reference to the manipulation of a simple hand puppet made from a sock—originally referred to a false identity assumed by a member of an internet community who spoke to, or about himself while pretending to be another...
" to "spread pro-American propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
". The US Centcom comments that the US-based Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
and Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
networks are not targeted by the program, as the US laws prohibit US state agencies from spreading propaganda among the US citizens.
Polyanskaya's article
This alleged phenomenon in RuNetRunet
Currently Internet access in Russia is available to businesses and home users in various forms, including dial-up, cable, DSL, FTTH, mobile, wireless and satellite...
was described in 2003 by a French journalist Anna Polyanskaya (a former assistant to assassinated Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
politician Galina Starovoitova
Galina Starovoitova
Galina Vasilyevna Starovoitova was a Russian politician and ethnographer known for her work to protect ethnic minorities and promote democratic reforms in Russia.- Early life and academic career :...
), French journalist Andrey Krivov and US programmer and political activist Ivan Lomako. They claimed there exist organized and professional "brigades", composed of ideologically and methodologically identical personalities, who were working in popular liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
and pro-democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
Internet forums and Internet newspapers of RuNet
Runet
Currently Internet access in Russia is available to businesses and home users in various forms, including dial-up, cable, DSL, FTTH, mobile, wireless and satellite...
.
The activity of Internet teams appeared in 1999 and were organized by the Russian state security service
FSB (Russia)
The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation is the main domestic security agency of the Russian Federation and the main successor agency of the Soviet Committee of State Security . Its main responsibilities are counter-intelligence, internal and border security, counter-terrorism, and...
, according to Polyanskaya. According to authors, about 70% of audience of Russian Internet were people of generally liberal views prior to 1998–1999, however sudden surge (about 60–80%) of "antidemocratic" posts suddenly occurred at many Russian forums in 2000.
Criticism
Alexander Yusupovskiy, head of the analytical department of the Federation Council of RussiaFederation Council of Russia
Federation Council of Russia ) is the upper house of the Federal Assembly of Russia , according to the 1993 Constitution of the Russian Federation...
(Russian Parliament upper house) published in 2003 an article "Conspiracy theory" in Russian Journal
Russian Journal
Russian Journal may refer to one of the following*A Russian Journal, a book by John Steinbeck*Russian Journal, a book by Andrea Lee *Russian Journal , a Russian online publication...
with criticism of theory of web brigades.
Yusupovskiy's points included:
- He thought that officers of GRU or FSB have more topical problems than "comparing virtual penises" with liberals and emigrants.
- Commenting on the change of attitude of virtual masses in 1998–1999 authors evade any mention of the 1998 Russian financial collapse which "crowned liberal decade", preferring to blame "mysterious bad guys or Big Brother" for that change.
- Authors exclude from their interpretation of events all different hypotheses, such as internet activity of a group of some "skinheads", nazbols or simply unliberal students; or hackers able to get IP addresses of their opponents.
- Authors treat independence of public opinion in spirit of irreconcilable antagonism with positive image of Russia.
Team "G"
An article based upon the original Polyanskaya, Krivov, Lomko's article on web brigades and authored by the Independent Customers' Association was published in May 2008 at Expertiza.Ru website, the term web brigades replaced with the term Team "G".Sergey Golubitsky, journalist of Russian IT-related magazine Computerra
Computerra
Computerra was a Russian computer weekly publication. The first edition was released on December 21, 1992 and was published by C&C Computer Publishing Limited...
commented on the story in July 2008:
Korchevnaya's evidence
Tatyana Korchevnaya, a former candidate to the Deputy of the State DumaState Duma
The State Duma , common abbreviation: Госду́ма ) in the Russian Federation is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia , the upper house being the Federation Council of Russia. The Duma headquarters is located in central Moscow, a few steps from Manege Square. Its members are referred to...
from the Other Russia list, a former United Civil Front
United Civil Front
United Civil Front is a social movement in Russia founded and led by chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov. It is part of The Other Russia, an opposition coalition active in Moscow...
coordinator of the Primorsky Krai
Primorsky Krai
Primorsky Krai , informally known as Primorye , is a federal subject of Russia . Primorsky means "maritime" in Russian, hence the region is sometimes referred to as Maritime Province or Maritime Territory. Its administrative center is in the city of Vladivostok...
, supporter of Trepashkin
Mikhail Trepashkin
Mikhail Ivanovich Trepashkin, is a Moscow attorney and former FSB colonel who was invited by MP Sergei Kovalev to assist in an independent inquiry of the Russian apartment bombings in September 1999 – the atrocities that followed Dagestan war and were one of the triggers for the Second Chechen...
and Khodorkovsky, participant of protest demonstrations, an author of the top tenth political blog of 2008 confessed in February 2009 in her blog that she was a member of an organization of Russia's "discontented", aimed to run a mass Internet campaign to discredit the authorities.
The project was coordinated by a Moscow-based manager, whose name Tatyana did not reveal. The goal of the participants was massive Internet campaigning, disputing those who were contented with their living in Russia, advertising Kasparov and Dissenters March
Dissenters March
The Dissenters' March was a series of political opposition protests that took place on 16 December 2006, in Moscow, on 3 March 2007, in Saint Petersburg, on 24 March 2007, in Nizhny Novgorod, on 14 April 2007, for the second time in Moscow and on 15 April 2007, again in Saint Petersburg, on 18 May...
es, and talking about atrocities of the "bloody regime".
The participants used multiple nicknames to combat their opponents.
Korchevnaya considered such scheme abnormal: "I believe that if someone is afraid to say what they think out loud from their own names then they are not a free person – it's as if they're playing for both teams." She explained her confession with getting tired of the lie of those who she sincerelly trusted before. The other reason was a concern for herself:
According to an anonymous source Tatyana referenced to, after she left the project it was "launched on a larger scale than was planned at the start", with participants "planning to ditch their real life jobs and embark on this project full time, especially now that they are going to get paid for it".
US web-brigades program (Operation Earnest Voice)
In 2011, several major Western media reported the United States government launched a program, named Operation Earnest Voice. The aim of the initiative is to use sockpuppetsSockpuppet (Internet)
A sockpuppet is an online identity used for purposes of deception. The term—a reference to the manipulation of a simple hand puppet made from a sock—originally referred to a false identity assumed by a member of an internet community who spoke to, or about himself while pretending to be another...
to spread pro-American propaganda on social networking sites based outside of the US.
The US government signed a $2,8m contract with the Ntrepid
Ntrepid
Ntrepid is an American software, hardware, and cyber security company, registered in Los Angeles and based in San Diego.-Operation Earnest Voice:...
web-security company to develop a specialized software, allowing agents of the government to post propaganda on "foreign-language websites".
Main characteristics of the software, as stated in the software development request, are:
- 50 user "operator" licensies, 10 sockpuppets controllable by each user,
- Sockpuppets are to be "replete with background, history, supporting details, and cyber presences that are technically, culturally and geographically consistent". Sockpuppets are to "be able to appear to originate in nearly any part of the world";
- A special secure VPNVirtual private networkA virtual private network is a network that uses primarily public telecommunication infrastructure, such as the Internet, to provide remote offices or traveling users access to a central organizational network....
, allowing sockpuppets to appear to be posting from "randomly selected IP addresses", in order to "hide the existence of the operation"; - 50 static IP addressIP addressAn Internet Protocol address is a numerical label assigned to each device participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing...
es to enable government agencies to "manage their persistent online personas", with identities of government and enterprise organizations protected; allowing for different state agents to use the same sockpuppet, and easily switch between different sockpuppets to "look like ordinary users as opposed to one organization", - 9 private servers, "based on the geographic area of operations the customer is operating within and which allow a customer's online persona(s) to appear to originate from"; should use commercial hosting centers around the world,
- Virtual machineVirtual machineA virtual machine is a "completely isolated guest operating system installation within a normal host operating system". Modern virtual machines are implemented with either software emulation or hardware virtualization or both together.-VM Definitions:A virtual machine is a software...
environment, deleted after each session termination, to avoid interaction with "any virus, worm, or malicious software".
The US government "psy-ops warriors" are banned by the US laws to spread propaganda among US citizens, and the US military said the US-based Facebook and Twitter would not be targeted by web-brigades. At the same time, Isaac R. Porche, a researcher at the RAND Corp. claims it would not be easy to exclude US audiences, when dealing with internet communications.
See also
- Internet activismInternet activismInternet activism is the use of electronic communication technologies such as e-mail, the World Wide Web, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster communications by citizen movements and the delivery of local information to a large audience...
- Sockpuppet (Internet)Sockpuppet (Internet)A sockpuppet is an online identity used for purposes of deception. The term—a reference to the manipulation of a simple hand puppet made from a sock—originally referred to a false identity assumed by a member of an internet community who spoke to, or about himself while pretending to be another...
- Internet policeInternet policeInternet police is a generic term for police and secret police departments and other organizations in charge of policing Internet in a number of countries...
- Cyberwarfare in Russia
- Operation Earnest Voice (US)
- 50 Cent Party50 Cent PartyThe 50 Cent Party is a pejorative unofficial term for Internet commentators hired by the government of the People's Republic of China or the Communist Party to post comments favorable towards party policies in an attempt to shape and sway public opinion on various Internet message boards...