Department of State Report Hopes to Increase Resilience to Disinformation and Propaganda with Deconstruction of Russian Tactics

The U.S. Department of State has released a special report providing an overview of Russia’s disinformation and propaganda ecosystem. The report outlines the five pillars for this ecosystem, which include: 1) Official Government Communications; 2) State-Funded Global Messaging; 3) Cultivation of Proxy Sources; 4) Weaponization of Social Media; and 5) Cyber-Enabled Disinformation. It describes how these pillars. For one pillar in particular, Cultivation of Proxy Sources, it details how the tactics interact with one another to elevate malicious content and create an illusion of credibility. The report contains discussions and examples of Russian disinformation efforts that have sought to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic, which are characteristic of some of Russia’s opportunistic approaches. Through the report and its other efforts, the Department of State hopes to expose Russia’s tactics so that others, including allied governments and private sector organizations and individuals can be equipped to conduct further analysis of their own and thereby increase collective resilience to disinformation and propaganda.