It should not be surprising that the release of special counsel Robert Mueller's (redacted) report on Russian hacking and online propaganda efforts was the target of, of course, further online propaganda efforts. NBC News reports that over 5,000 crudely crafted Twitter "bot" accounts were removed by Twitter after they were used to condemn Mueller's report as part of a "Russiagate hoax."
But the accounts weren't Russian, reports NBC. They appeared to be the work of a Saudi Arabian firm operating most recently as @TheGlobus or @ArabianVeritas, and it appears to be a trolling-for-hire outfit devoted to promoting whatever propaganda effort a client is willing to pay for.
“The landscape has changed,” said Clint Watts, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute who focuses on global disinformation campaigns. “Since 2016, everybody’s doing this. It’s trolling as a service. And since there are no consequences, the least sophisticated of all the actors are doing this.”
The short version is that no matter how aggressive state-sponsored propaganda efforts from the Russian, Saudi Arabian, and other governments might have been in the last few years, it may be nothing compared to what will happen during the 2020 elections. Hoax-based propaganda efforts using fraudulent Facebook and Twitter accounts are cheap, simple to run, and can be done with little to no technical skills. Advertisement-based hoax news sites were proven to be a potential gold mine for Macedonian and other grifters in 2016; in 2020 it will be possible for corporate, governmental, and private actors to order up ready-made networks of social media bots to promote customized hoax campaigns.
While previous astroturfing sought to plant notions of true grassroots support for particular lobbying ideas by presenting industry-orchestrated demonstrations or signature-collecting as the work of civic-minded citizen groups, online propaganda efforts eliminate any need to come up with actual living, breathing humans to play those roles.
Want ten thousand voices all screaming that Donald J. Trump was framed by the cruel machinations of George Soros or Robert Mueller? Write a check and they will be algorithmically created, each with a stolen photograph, fake personal background, artificial interests, and whatever deep-seated political opinions you want them to have. Push the button, and they are released.
This means two things. One, we are very, very boned if online giants like Facebook and Twitter cannot muster the will and resources to curb for-profit and state-sponsored propaganda efforts alike. And two, online consumers are going to have to themselves be aggressive in their distrust. Just because [Karen] from [Dallas, Texas], a woman who likes [knitting parrot vests] and [gambling on mixed martial arts tournaments], has shared a story about how [Robert Mueller] is secretly in league with [the Horae, ancient Greek goddesses of the seasons] based on a sketchy link to a website created three months prior, that does not make the story true. Karen may not be Karen. Karen may be the product of a computer script crafted just that afternoon, cobbled together from stolen parts of other people's accounts and profiles.
Unless you've met Karen and can vouch for her, assume the worst. And we are extremely boned—did I mention that?—because for every real-life person "Karen" doesn't fool, there are others who will willingly take the bait. There are many, many suckers in the world, and a strong majority of them appear to take pride in it.