Shitposting for Fun and Profit
Memes, rhetoric, and Russian trolls
--
It is election time again, which means Russia is back in the news.
In early September, Facebook and Twitter suspended multiple accounts affiliated with the Internet Research Agency, a Russian propaganda group. Then a whistleblower at the Department of Homeland Security alleged that Trump officials altered intelligence reports about Russian disinformation to make it seem less threatening. That was followed up by Microsoft issuing a warning that, among other things, hackers connected to Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) were revving up in the run up to the election. In a new DHS threat assessment released this week, American intelligence officials warn that Russia is “the likely primary covert influence actor and purveyor of disinformation and misinformation” in the United States.
The focus this close to the election is understandably on influence operations, or “active measures.” But there’s little we can do to stop them. Especially when the sitting president uses his director of national intelligence as a political operative to misleadingly downplay Russia’s efforts.
Where you and I come in, where you and I have influence, is on memes. That’s where we should focus our vigilance. This can all seem a bit silly, but don’t fall into the trap of thinking memes are trivial. Russia would not have invested so heavily into them if they were. Memes can be incredibly sophisticated forms of digital propaganda. In the past few years they have been key elements in foreign influence campaigns.
Memes are visual, often funny, snippets of communication — pictures and gifs — that can be easily shared on social media, text messages, and email. For most people, they act as little more than a quick reaction.
In 2016, freelance journalist Douglas Haddow published an article in The Guardian called, “Meme Warfare: How the Power of Mass Replication has Poisoned the US Election.” There’s a lot Haddow gets right about how memes get made and circulate. His most valuable insight, to my mind, was his account of the power shift that has taken place within meme culture in recent years.
According to Haddow, political memes have always existed. Whereas they were once “rare flashes of…
