The Web Brigades -- Original Version

For various reasons, I worry that this apparently original version of an excellent essay on Web Brigades might be erased or deleted by over-zealous sectarian Wikipedia mods, and so I'm re-printing it here.

I'm not sure it's the original version, but it's a version of the article "at a certain date" as the author says.

It's funny, it's in the talk section on the user page of Elysander.

That is, this version of the article is preserved here on that user page (you'll see what I mean in the next post).

I don't know Elysander but I stumbled on them because a Twitter account commenting on something I said about Snowden had this URL in their profile. I get bombarded by so many hecklers that even well-meaning people can get lost in the shuffle so now I can't find them again.

I'm including the German here, even though I don't know what it says -- Elysander may be German (or Russian-German -- they have Russian text also on the user page). Someone can tell me.

It's a really great list of not only how the pro-Putin/Nashi/United Russia/FSB supported Internet hecklers behave -- their repertoire, after all, came from the Leninists in the KGB -- but of how in general, WikiLeaks, hackers, anarchists, Anonymous behave (Occupy, too, although they are a special sectarian case with their own weirdness like the "general assembly" and the hand waving stuff).

Now stay tuned to the next post, which shows you this topic in its present form...

Web brigades ~~ Article status at a certain date

The Internet brigades or Web brigades (Russian: Веб-бригады simplified Chinese: 网特；; traditional Chinese: 網特)^[1][2] are governmental teams of on-line commentators that participate in political blogs and Internet forums to promote disinformation and prevent free discussions of undesirable subjects. Such teams are allegedly affiliated with Russian state propaganda department and security services and with Chinese internet police^[3]. The state-sponsored "web brigades" exist along with other organized teams of information fighters that may push private political agendas,^[4] be involved in astroturfing,^[5] or participate in election campaigns.^[6]

Web brigades in Russia

First publication

This alleged phenomenon in RuNet was described in 2003 by journalist Anna Polyanskaya ^[7] (a former assistant to assassinated Russian politician Galina Starovoitova^[8]), historian Andrey Krivov and political activist Ivan Lomako, from the Center for extreme journalism.

They described organized and professional "brigades", composed of ideologically and methodologically identical personalities, who were working in practically every 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. ^[3][2] 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.

Views

According to Polyanskaya and her colleagues, the behavior of people from the web brigades has distinct features, some of which are the following:^[2]

• Any change in Moscow's agenda leads to immediate changes in the brigade's opinions.
• Boundless loyalty to Vladimir Putin and his circle.
• Respect and admiration for the KGB and FSB.
• Nostalgia for the Soviet Union and propaganda of the Communist ideology, and constant attempts to present in a positive light the entire history of Russia and the Soviet Union, minimizing the number of people who died in repressions.^[2]
• Anti-liberal, anti-American, anti-Chechen, anti-Semitic and anti-western opinions. Xenophobia, racism, approval of skinheads and pogroms.^[2]
• Accusation of Russophobia against everyone who disagrees with them.
• Hatred of dissidents and human rights organizations and activists, political prisoners and journalists, especially Anna Politkovskaya, Sergei Kovalev, Elena Bonner, Grigory Pasko, Victor Shenderovich, and Valeria Novodvorskaya.
• Emigrants are accused of being traitors of the motherland. Some members will claim that they live in some Western country and tell stories about how much better life is in Putin's Russia.
• Before the Iraq War, the brigade's anti-U.S. operations reached unseen scale. The original publication describes: "it sometimes seemed that the U.S. was not liberating the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein, but at a minimum had actually launched an attack on Russia and was marching on the Kremlin." However, it fell silent suddenly after Putin announced that Russia was not opposed to the victory of the coalition forces in Iraq.^[2]

Tactics

These brigades reportedly use a number of common tactics.

• Frequent changes of pseudonyms.^[2]

• Round-the-clock presence on forums. At least one of the uniform members of the team can be found online at all times, always ready to repulse any “attack” by a liberal.^[2]

• Intentional diversion of pointed discussions. For instance, the brigade may claim that Pol Pot never had any connection with Communism or that not a single person was killed in Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 by Soviet tanks.

• Individual work on opponents. "As soon as an opposition-minded liberal arrives on a forum, expressing a position that makes them a clear "ideological enemy”, he is immediately cornered and subjected to “active measures” by the unified web-brigade. Without provocation, the opponent is piled on with abuse or vicious “arguments” of the sort that the average person cannot adequately react to. As a result, the liberal either answers sharply, causing a scandal and getting himself labeled a “boor” by the rest of the brigade, or else he starts to make arguments against the obvious absurdities, to which his opponents pay no attention, but simply ridicule him and put forth other similar arguments."^[2]

• Accusations that opponents are working for “enemies”. The opponents are accused of taking money from Berezovskiy, the CIA, the MOSSAD, Saudi Arabia, the Zionists, or the Chechen rebels.

• Making personally offensive comments. Tendency to accuse their opponents of being insane during arguments.

• Remarkable ability to reveal personal information about their opponents and their quotes from old postings, sometimes more than a year old.

• Teamwork. "They unwaveringly support each other in discussions, ask each other leading questions, put fine points on each other’s answers, and even pretend not to know each other. If an opponent starts to be hounded, this hounding invariably becomes a team effort, involving all of the three to twenty nicknames that invariably are present on any political forum 24 hours a day."^[2]

• Appealing to the Administration. The members of teams often "write mass collective complaints about their opponents to the editors, site administrators, or the electronic “complaints book”, demanding that one or another posting or whole discussion thread they don’t like be removed, or calling for the banning of individuals they find problematic."^[2]

• Destruction of inconvenient forums. For example, on the site of the Moscow News, all critics of Putin and the FSB "were suddenly and without any explanation banned from all discussions, despite their having broken none of the site’s rules of conduct. All the postings of this group of readers, going back a year and a half, were erased by the site administrator."^[2]

Criticism

Alexander Yusupovskiy, head of the analytical department of the Federation Council of Russia (Russian Parliament) asserted that web brigades are a conspiracy theory.^[9] Yusupovskiy's points included:

• There is difference between "dislike of hegemonic policy of the United States" at Russian forums and "quite friendly attitude towards usual Americans". Aggression and xenophobia doesn't characterize one side but is a common place of polemics, well met not only among Russian patriots, but among Russian emigrants from US, Israel, or other countries as well.
• Change of attitude of virtual masses in 1998-1999 could be caused by Russian financial collapse which "crowned liberal decade", rather than "mysterious bad guys".
• Authors exclude from their interpretation of events all other hypotheses, such as internet activity of a group of some "skinheads", nazbols; or hackers able to get IP addresses of their opponents.
• Officeers of GRU or FSB have more topical problems, than "comparing virtual penises" with liberals and emigrants.^[9]Yusupovskiy concluded that

"We would never make our country's military organizations and security services work under the rule of law and legal control, if won't learn to recognize rationally and objectively their necessity and usefulness for the country, state, society and citizens. Sweeping defamation and intentional discreditation with the help of "arguments", which are obviously false, only contribute to the extrusion of security services outside of rule of law and instigates them to chaos".^[9]

=Support

Russian intelligence expert Andrei Soldatov made the following points when asked by Yevgenia Albats about "web brigades" ^[10]:

• Russian state security teams actively disrupt work of certain political blogs;
• One of the teams, who called themselves GRU officers, was actively involved in a disinformation campaign prior to US invasion of Iraq;
• The teams are also involved in hacker attacks, and they have probably attacked his own web site during the Moscow theater hostage crisis;
• Some of the "web brigades" are coordinated by the Russian signals intelligence, which is currently a part of the FSB and has been formerly a part of 16th KGB department;
• There are also such teams from the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Paul Goble, director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, claims "the Kremlin has dispatched its own “agents of influence” to political forums on the Internet both to portray itself as having more support than it has and to suggest that its opponents who would like to see a more democratic Russia with closer ties to the West are an ever more marginal group"^[11]

Public perception in Russia

In 2007 sociological analysis of big groups in Russian society published at Russian resource RIO-Center, it's mentioned that idea of existence of web-brigades is a widespread conspiracy theory in RuNet. Authors say "it's difficult to say whether hypothesis of existence of web-brigades corresponds to reality", "web brigades are conspiracy theory" but acknowledge that the users profess views on the existence of "web-brigades". ^[12]

"LiveJournal fighters"

A member of National Bolshevik Party Roman Sadykhov reported about "LiveJournal fighters", directed and paid from the Kremlin and instructions given to them by Vladislav Surkov, a close aide of Vladimir Putin ^[13] Surkov allegedly called Livejournal "a very important sector of work" ^[14] and said that people's brains must be "nationalized" . He instructed "LiveJournal fighters" that

"We are losing in the Internet in that respect. It is always easier to break down things than to do something positive. What you are doing are jokes and minor infractions. Not only methods, but also goals must be radical. We must blow this romantics out of them [our opponents]. It is important not only to protect the authorities - this is understood, but we need to attract young people who can work creatively in the Internet. This is an important communication place of young people. Make them interested in conversations with you."^[14]

Internet brigades in Russian literature

The alleged FSB activities on the Internet have been described in the short story "Anastasya" by Russian writer Grigory Svirsky, who was interested in the moral aspects of their work.^[15] He wrote: "It seems that offending, betraying, or even "murdering" people in the virtual space is easy. This is like killing an enemy in a video game: one does not see a disfigured body or the eyes of the person who is dying right in front of you. However, the human soul lives by its own basic laws that force it to pay the price for the virtual crime in his real life".^[3]

Outside Russia

Russian brigades in the Polish Internet

Russian "Internet brigades" reportedly appeared in Poland in 2005. According to claims of anonymous "Polish experts on Russian affairs", reported by the Polish newspaper Tygodnik Powszechny, "at least a dozen active Russian agents work in Poland, also investigating the Polish Internet. They are claimed to scrutinize Polish websites (like those supporting Belarusian opposition), and also to perform such actions, as—for instance—contributing to Internet forums on large portals (like Gazeta.pl, Onet.pl, WP.pl). Labeled as Polish Internet users, they incite anti-Semitic or anti-Ukrainian discussions or disavow articles published on the web."^[16]

Internet propaganda teams in mainland China

It has been reported^[1] that in 2005, departments of provincial and municipal governments in mainland China began creating teams of Internet commentators from propaganda and police departments and offering them classes in Marxism, propaganda techniques, and the Internet. They are reported to guide discussion on public bulletin boards away from politically sensitive topics by posting opinions anonymously or under false names. "They are actually hiring staff to curse online", said Liu Di, a Chinese student who was arrested for posting her comments in blogs.

Netherlands

It was reported that Dutch police have set up an Internet Brigade to fight cybercrime. Among its planned actions are to infiltrate internet newsgroups and discussion forums for intelligence gathering, to make pseudo-purchase and to provide services.^[17].

Internet brigades in Wikipedia?

A number of publications suggested that intelligence agents may have infiltrated Wikipedia to remove undesirable information ^[18] The design and application of WikiScanner technology proved such suspicions to be well founded, although it remains unknown how many agents from around the world operate in Wikipedia ^{[19] [20] [21] [22] [23]}

References

1. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} China's secret Internet police target critics with web of propaganda, by Jonathan Watts in Beijing, June 14, 2005, Guardian Unlimited
2. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} Commissars of the Internet. The FSB at the Computer by Anna Polyanskaya, Andrei Krivov, and Ivan Lomko, Vestnik online, April 30, 2003 (English translation)
3. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c} (Russian) Eye for an eye by Grigory Svirsky and Vladimur Bagryansky, publication of the Russian Center for Extreme Journalism [1]
4. Jump up ^ Internet as a field of information war against Armenia, by Samvel Martirosyan, 18 October, 2006,
5. Jump up ^ George Monbiot, "The Fake Persuaders. Corporations are inventing people to rubbish their opponents on the Internet," The Guardian (UK) (posted by Norfolk Genetic Information Network), May 14, 2002,
6. Jump up ^ Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, "For Activist Constituents, Click Here," The Washington Post, September 19, 2005.
7. Jump up ^ Articles by Anna Polyanskaya, MAOF publishing group
8. Jump up ^ (Russian) "They are killing Galina Starovoitova for the second time", by Anna Polyanskaya
9. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c} Conspiracy theory, by Alexander Yusupovskiy, Russian Journal, 25 April, 2003
10. Jump up ^ State control over the internet, a talk show by Yevgenia Albats at the Echo of Moscow, January 22, 2006; interview with Andrei Soldatov and others
11. Jump up ^ Paul Goble Kremlin’s ‘Agents of Influence’ Said Tilting Internet Forums against the West
12. Jump up ^ Big groups in Russian society: analysis of prospects of organization of collective actions., by RIO-Center. (in Russian)
13. Jump up ^ (Russian) Interview with Roman Sadykhov, grani.ru, 3 April, 2007
14. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Military wing of Kremlin (Russian), The New Times, 19 March, 2007
15. Jump up ^ " Grigory Svirsky Anastasya. A story on-line (Full text in Russian)
16. Jump up ^ Operation "Disinformation" - The Russian Foreign Office vs "Tygodnik Powszechny", Tygodnik Powszechny, 13/2005
17. Jump up ^ Internet Brigade gets fit for fighting Cyber Crime, by Jelle van Buure, August 26, 2001, Heise Online
18. Jump up ^ Wikipedia and the Intelligence Services, by Ludwig De Braeckeleer, OhmyNews, 2007-07-26.
19. Jump up ^ CIA, FBI computers used for Wikipedia edits by Reuters
20. Jump up ^ Wal-Mart, CIA, ExxonMobil Changed Wikipedia Entries, by Rhys Blakely, The Times, August 16, 2007
21. Jump up ^ Wikipedia 'shows CIA page edits' By Jonathan Fildes, BBC News
22. Jump up ^ See Who's Editing Wikipedia - Diebold, the CIA, a Campaign, by Wired
23. Jump up ^ CIA and Labour Party 'edit' Wikipedia entries By Paul Willis

See also

• Information warfare
• Harassment by computer
• Jingjing and Chacha
• Computer crime
• Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China
• Astroturfing
• Political repression of bloggers and cyber-dissidents

External links

The original publication:

• Translation to English: Commissars of the Internet - The FSB at the Computer. By Anna Politkovskaya, Andrei Krivov, and Ivan Lomko.

Discussions of existence of web-brigades in RuNet:

• Russophone LiveJournal community FSB Brigade for Smothering Democracy
• Discussion of the article Red Web Brigades at Nnov.Ru (in Russian)
• Discussion of control over internet and personal security with Yevgeniya Albats at Moscow-based radio channel Echo Moskvy. (in Russian)

[[Category:Internet forum terminology]] [[Category:Internet culture]] [[Category:Internet censorship]] [[Category:Technology in society]] [[Category:Cyberspace]] [[Category:Political weblogs]] [[Category:Propaganda techniques]] [[Category:Public relations techniques]] [[Category:Psychological warfare techniques]] [[Category:Soviet and Russian intelligence agencies]] [[Category:Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation]] [[Category:Human rights in Russia]] [[Category:Internet in Russia]] [[Category:Conspiracy theories]]

Additional Sources

TAZ [22] Activities of Russian Web Brigades in foreign countries/ Attacks on German author Boris Reitschuster / ""Putins Demokratur" MELANIE ZERAHN - "Der virtuelle Arm des Kreml" - 15 Jan 2007

Der 35-Jährige Journalist steht unter Druck. Mit seinem Buch "Putins Demokratur" traf er eine empfindliche Stelle des russischen Staatsapparats. Es sei "selbstmörderisch", so ein kritisches Werk zu veröffentlichen, warnten ihn Russlandkenner.

Die kontroverse Auseinandersetzung über sein Buch findet seinen Weg inzwischen nach Deutschland. Bei Amazon ist ein Kampf der Rezensionen entbrannt. Mehrere Einträge wenden sich entschieden gegen das Werk und seinen Autor. Die Rezensenten sprechen von einem "Buch, das Paranoia generiert", von einer "Aufgeregtheit der deutschen Innenpolitik", "kaltem Kriegsgeschrei", "bewusster Desinformation" und "Angstmacherei". Reitschuster suche "mit der Lupe das wohlig Schaurige" und verbreite "Vorurteil, Propagandalügen und Schauermären". Mit "Wühlen im Dreck, Aufkochen von Schauersüppchen und Zuweisung der Schuld an die Falschesten" sei niemand geholfen, schreibt Snezana aus der Schweiz. "Schwarzmaler" und "historische Fehleinschätzer" wie Reitschuster "zeigen mit dem Finger auf Russland" und "reden von ,Demokratiedefiziten' und beschnittener Meinungsfreiheit, weil sie die Hunderte von unterschiedlichen Zeitungen, die es in Russland gibt, einfach nicht lesen können."

Der Econ-Verlag hat den Verdacht, dass diese Leserkritiken gesteuert sind. "Die Rezensionen ähneln sich nicht nur im aggressiven Tonfall, sondern teilweise auch in der Wortwahl." Einen Eintrag hat der Berliner Politikverlag bereits entfernen lassen. Unter dem Pseudonym "German Lover" bezichtigt der Rezensent den Autor als unqualifizierten Lügner und beschimpft ihn als "Teufelsanbeter". Der Anwalt von Econ hat die Äußerungen als unwahre Tatsachenbehauptungen und Schmähkritik verurteilt, durch die Reitschuster in seinen Persönlichkeitsrechten verletzt werde. Amazon strich daraufhin die relevanten Passagen.

Der Vorwurf, die Einträge seien dirigiert, ist so absurd nicht. Der Geheimdienstexperte Nikita Petrow von der Nichtregierungsorganisation Memorial aus Moskau attestiert dem russischen Geheimdienst eine "gezielte Propaganda-Zusammenarbeit" mit im Ausland lebenden Russen. "In der Sowjetzeit war dies kaum möglich, da die im Exil lebenden Russen in der Regel antisowjetisch waren. Inzwischen leben so viele Kremltreue im Ausland, dass der Geheimdienst aus dem Vollen schöpfen kann." Die Kremlanhänger sollen laut Petrow versuchen, die russische "Ehre" im Ausland wiederherzustellen und positiv Einfluss auf die öffentliche Meinung zu nehmen.

Was Reitschuster bei Amazon erlebt, kennt er aus seinem russischen Alltag. Seit über zehn Jahren lebt der Journalist in Moskau und leitet seit 1999 das russische Büro des Focus. Auf der staatlichen Internetseite "Inosmi" wird er als "Laus-Ei" beschimpft, als "Judensau", die "begeistert den Hintern der deutschen Bürokraten geküsst" habe, um zu beweisen, was für ein guter Deutscher er sei. "So ein Vieh" gehöre "umgebracht". Das Portal ist Teil der staatlichen Nachrichtenagentur RIA Nowosti und übersetzt täglich ausländische Presseberichte ins Russische.

In Russland geht die Opposition davon aus, dass die prorussischen Blogger Teil eines organisierten Apparats sind. Das Moskauer "Zentrum für Journalismus in Extremsituationen" veröffentlichte bereits 2003 einen Bericht, in der sie die These vertrat, dass die kremltreuen Stimmen im Internet offenbar oftmals vom Geheimdienst gesteuert und regelrechte "Brigaden" am Werk seien.

Die drei Autoren der Studie "Das virtuelle Auge des großen Bruders" untersuchte Indizien wie Semantik, Verlauf und technische Details der Einträge. Ihr Fazit: Die Wortwahl und Stilistik der einzelnen Einträge stimmen weitgehend überein, zudem sei das Strickmuster der Kommentare meist ähnlich.

Die Verurteilung von jeder Kritik als Werk des "Feindes", eine militarisierte, oft obszöne Sprache, die persönliche Diffamierung von Widersachern, die Anwendung von Propagandamethoden wie das sofortige Ablenken von wirklich heiklen Themen sowie Chauvinismus und eine sehr spezifische Gedankenwelt zeigten, dass die Verfasser in allen Foren identische Methoden der Beeinflussung nutzen. Der KGB, die UdSSR und Putin werden, so die Autoren, um jeden Preis verteidigt. Die "ideologische Brigade" sei rund um die Uhr am Werk, auch liberale Einträge in den Nachtstunden würden sofort erwidert.

Foren werden längst als wichtiges meinungsbildendes Instrument erkannt. Das, was bei Amazon passiert, ist in der Werbe- und PR-Branche unter "Forum Hacking" bekannt: Vermeintlich neutrale User äußern sich besonders begeistert über ein Produkt, in Wahrheit steckt jedoch eine beauftragte Agentur dahinter.

Von der Bedeutung der Foren weiß auch der russische Geheimdienst. Deutschland scheint dabei zunehmend in den Fokus der Beobachter zu rücken. Das zeigt auch der Streit um die Ausladung des Kremlkritikers Garri Kasparow aus der Sendung "Christiansen" und die dabei vermutete Einflussnahme des russischen Botschafters Wladimir Kotenew.

"Die Stimmung ist sehr nervös", beobachtet Reitschuster. Bei einem Gipfel der russischen Opposition im vergangenen Herbst konnte er sich vor einem anfahrenden Fahrzeug nur noch durch einen Abroller auf die Motorhaube retten. "Vier Teilnehmer wurden von Unbekannten festgenommen, einen davon warfen die Männer auf den Boden und schlugen ihn. Auf meine Nachfrage, wer sie sind, woher sie kommen, reagierten sie nicht. Ich machte ein Foto mit dem Handy, in diesem Moment stürzten sie sich auf mich und rissen mir das Telefon weg, obwohl ich ihnen meine Akkreditierung zeigte. Ich stehe vor dem Auto, sie fahren auf mich los, ich kann gerade noch auf das Auto springen und mich abrollen lassen." Für Reitschuster pure Willkür. Eine Strafverfolgung erfolgte nicht. "Die Vertreter des Staates können machen, was sie wollen, und die Justiz versucht offenbar nicht einmal, sie dafür zur Rechenschaft zu ziehen."

Auch Reitschusters Lesereise durch Deutschland wurde immer wieder von russischen Beobachtern begleitet. "Bei einer Lesung in Potsdam war ein Vertreter der russischen Botschaft anwesend, danach beschwerte sich der Botschafter Wladimir Kotenew bitter über meine Äußerungen", erzählt der Autor. Kotenew bezeichnet kritische Ausländer schon mal als "Feinde Russlands", in interessanter sprachlicher Analogie zum "Volksfeind" unter Stalin.

Der ursprüngliche Plan, das Buch auch auf Russisch herauszugeben, wurde verworfen. "Zu gefährlich" war der allgemeine Tenor. Immer wieder raten besorgte Kollegen und Freunde Reitschuster aus Sicherheitsgründen vorsichtiger zu schreiben oder Russland ganz zu verlassen. "Inzwischen laufen regelrechte Kampagnen der Desinformation und zum Teil auch üble Diskreditierung. Das tut natürlich weh."

Besorgniserregend ist für ihn der ständig wiederkehrende Vorwurf, dass ausländische Journalisten eine Kampagne gegen Russland betreiben würden. "So äußert sich der Geheimdienstchef Nikolai Patruschew in alter KGB-Manier, dass sich ausländische Spione immer häufiger als Journalisten und Vertreter von NGOs tarnen", schüttelt Reitschuster den Kopf. "Prominente Russen beschwerten sich in einem Brief an westliche Verleger, die ausländischen Korrespondenten betrieben eine ,antirussische Kampagne' und es werde ,gezielt Hysterie geschürt'. Auch die Duma vermutet eine ,Diskreditierungsaktion' hinter kritischen Berichten."

Mittlerweile an die Schikanen russischer Behörden gewöhnt, lässt sich Reitschuster nicht beirren. Pläne, nach Deutschland zurückzukehren, hat er nicht. "Obwohl, man weiß ja nie, wie sich die Lage zuspitzt."

www.amazon.de/o/ASIN/3430200067/ref=s9_asin_image_2/028-9413062-3154927

www.reitschuster.de

Elysander (talk) 22:18, 5 November 2008 (UTC)