Unrestricted Social Media platforms are a severe threat to the US/ NATO and all democracy.

We are all victims and the MAGA controlled GOP is the obstacle to protection.

Happy Friday TAT readers,

Today comes a topic near and dear to me, protecting our republic and all of its citizen’s constitutionally guaranteed rights. This is a passionate cause for me since, influence operations are precisely in my expertise wheelhouse, and also is in my professional opinion, the most dangerous threat to our republic. In short, nearly unfettered social media platforms, have the most sway over our future, via their ability to censor in favor of their favorite oligarchs and adversaries of democracy.

Every single user of social media runs the perpetual risk of being victimized by a combination of; adversaries foreign and domestic, their financiers (oligarchy), unethical marketers, and social media platforms doing the dirty work of ensuring that the masses, only experience what they wish for them to see. Social media platforms like FB, X, LinkedIn, Truth Social etc. are exemplary of the threats. To date, and in my professional opinion, Substack is doing far better than the rest in inhibiting the majority of abuses prominent on other platforms. Without Federally imposed oversight though, this will not last. Don’t hold your breath for this though. The MAGA dominated GOP has stood firmly in the way of such oversight throughout the Trump era.

Phew, this opening is a as they say, “a mouthful.” The topic is beyond complex so today will simply offer an overview, a couple of examples and a little of my own personal, eight years’ worth of battles with LinkedIn, over their censorship of me and thousands of others. I highlight the LinkedIn case, as that it will be an entire chapter in my new book on adversarial influence operations against the US, Western Democracy and by both foreign and domestic actors.

One of my former team leaders, friend and partial military mentor once told me: “to make any point, use a football analogy.” To begin with, I will do just as he instructed.

"Influence operations are like a professional football game. Every game requires at a minimum for success; a coach, their supporting coaches, managers, trainers, scouts, physical therapists, an owner with very deep pockets, specialists and those who train each player at each position, strategists, marketers, swag, intelligence, etc. etc. etc.

- Cobaugh

Combat ineffective, the rusted, broken-down hulk of US Influence Operations, TAT/ Truth about Threats, Cobaugh

The US national security community would be 100% more effective if they could see influence operations as described in the analogy above. As is, they can’t even get on the field.

When I write professionally about influence operations, how to defend against enemy operations, how to project US values as part of our operations, and an endless array of tactics, I use my own definition for influence operations:

My version of a definition for influence relative to this paper: “Influence, done well is achieved by a complex and intricate choreography of sustained actions, words and related activities wrapped around a core narrative that continually modifies behavior in a manner supportive of national security objectives.” 

- Combat ineffective, the broken, rusting hulk of US influence operations
- Cobaugh
- 2018

The US National Security Community has left us a critical vulnerability in US national security. (truthaboutthreats.com)

The above quote is from a white paper I wrote for the national security community in 2018. In the six years since, not one thing of significance has been achieved by my former community, to render American democracy safer or improve the chances for America overseas. Our adversaries though are fielding complex assaults on western democracy and in the absence of opposition, are winning. As I often say, “the US is unarmed on the battlefield of influence.” It has been this way for over 4 decades and getting worse, daily.

The US national security community neither knows what influence operations look like nor understand how to operate themselves. This is the primary reason that Russia was successful in installing Trump into the Oval Office in 2016. Despite the attempts to raise alarms as early as early 2015 by the experienced professionals of my field, the entire community did their usual, they engaged in “paralysis by analysis” and in the gibberish we use for doctrine, were unable to communicate the threat, even had they recognized it.

PbA or...Paralysis by Analysis, the insanely expensive and often fruitless contributions to US national security. (truthaboutthreats.com)

Not only did the national security community fail, FB, LinkedIn and Twitter especially failed, wittingly allowed Russian influence operations to flourish for profit and ad money. This is where the majority of today’s MAGA/ GOP conspiracy theories come from. Facebook profited massively from ads and in fact, supplied Russia with user data via Cambridge Analytica. With Zuckerberg feigning innocence and ignorance, the truth bore out a very different conclusion. Facebook had indeed failed on multiple levels to close the door to all important user data. FB didn’t only sellout American and western democracy, but they did it to our NATO allies too, including every single user on their platform.

Everyone from the DNI/ Office of the Director of National Intelligence to the SSCI/ Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Report on Russia in the 2016 Elections (commonly known as the Mueller Report) concur about Russia’s large-scale, targeted influence operations in our 2016 election and it’s ongoing threat, eight years later. The SSCI report came in five volumes although that most, only know of the first. Volume 5, the CI/ Counterintelligence report is 966 pages of damming content regarding the behaviour of the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence.

Background:

• Background to DNI report on: “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections”: The Analytic Process and Cyber Incident Attribution

• RUSSIAN ACTIVE MEASURES CAMPAIGNS AND INTERFERENCE IN THE 2016 U.S. ELECTION Publications | Intelligence Committee (senate.gov)

Over on LinkedIn, I was personally involved in their abuse of their subscribers by favoring content coming directly form the Russian “Troll Factory” and their trolls operating with impunity on their platform. There were, and still are counterintelligence threats working within their Trust and Safety Div. Even this morning, this threat exists on LinkedIn. A week ago, I was again, informally banned for posting articles from TAT/ Truth about Threats that target foreign and domestic influence campaigns, their financiers (oligarchy) and their favored narrators online that disseminate Russian, Chinese, Indian, MAGA, and oligarchical propaganda. This is in an odd manner, a badge of honor for me because that it indicates TAT, is having success in shining the light on this type of anti-democracy, influence campaigns. This is why I am devoting a full case-study of my experiences in my next book.

It wasn’t lost on other professionals that this was occurring. The inimitable Jeff Stein, GOAT of all intelligence and national security reporting and SpyTalk fame, wrote an in-depth expose’ on the experiences of a small group of similar professionals, including me, for Newsweek in 2017.

Newsweek on Russian activity allowed by LinkedIn by Jeff Stein

Over on Twitter, things were no better and now that Elon Musk has taken over and changed the name to X, things have gone from dangerous to an outrageous, a digital wild west of influence operations, with a constant stream of new tactics and strategies.

The prestigious, Pulitzer Prize winning Poynter Institute’s report on X and Musk’s personal efforts to spread misinformation, shows precisely what professionals like me are doing their best to warn others about, that these platforms are havens for misinformation. To make matters worse, when platforms continue to censor truth tellers, as in my case on LinkedIn, they control what America and the free world see, which when done professionally, controls what free citizens think.

J’Accuse… LinkedIn

Now as we approach our 2024 election at an ever-increasing speed, social media platforms have once again become overly infested with increasingly aggressive tactics and operations. No matter how bad things are now, it will only get worse, the closer we come to election day. And our national security community is still virtually impotent to protect us. For example, my recent ban on LinkedIn is not just to silence me but is a message signaling caution to all who are truth-tellers, and meanwhile, counterintelligence threats within social media platforms, protect malign influencers, both domestic and foreign.

Sadly, the US FMIC/ Foreign Malign Influence Center is following in the path of the rest of the natsec community and playing a pseudo-defensive role only and it is far from effective. Again, and I simply don’t know how to make this any clearer, the US government is impotent and unwilling to learn anything of relevance about influence operations. This poses the most serious, self-inflicted wound to US and allied security as we approach the election. Another factor playing a threatening role and to which there is no answer as of yet, is that AI created fakes and deep fakes are about to make things even more dangerous. In many cases, they already have.

There is zero chance to protect the nation or our allies, should the powers-that-be in the natsec community remain intransigent to innovation and listening to operators rather than a pile of Ph.Ds. alone. Don’t get me wrong, brilliant academics are crucial, but unless they have actually operated in influence or collaborate with operators, they are not a sole source of expertise. Folks like DARPA and those in their crowd, also are seemingly allergic to real world expertise and operator input. No wonder that we’ve been losing at influence for over forty years… and paying a fortune for failure.

Let’s add one more piece to analyzing the severity of this threat. That is the MAGA controlled GOP. It is they who have fought every single attempt to bring safety and truth to the American people. The Republicans in Congress, dishonestly argued against the Department of Homeland Security’s, intended Disinformation Board and shut down the initiative in less than three weeks. We must remember though, that the Republican Base is overwhelmingly MAGA and exists solely, on a steady diet of conspiracy theories and disinformation. For example, 70% of registered Republicans believe that the 2020 election was “stolen.”

Another key example of Republican attempts to protect the conspiracy theories, foreign and domestic, is that in Trump’s first year, they reversed the law on “Net Neutrality protections.” Had this law remained in place, LinkedIn would have broken the law by censoring my and thousands of others over the past eight years. Without it, truth-tellers with sources are censored, while they protect malign influencers. Some of these influencers are not just foreign or domestic but the combination of both. Paul Manafort, convicted felon, pardoned by Trump, is a classic example.

Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign manager was mentioned 267 times in the 966-page Volume 5, Counterintelligence Report 

Below are two of the 267 mentions:

U) The Committee's bipartisan Report found that Paul Manafort, while he was 
Chairman of the Trump Campaign was secretly communicating with a Russian intelligence officer with whom he discussed Campaign strategy and repeatedly shared internal Campaign polling data. This took place while the Russian intelligence operation to assist Trump was ongoing. Further, Manafort took steps to hide these communications and repeatedly lied to federal investigators, and his deputy on the Campaign destroyed evidence of communications with the Russian intelligence officer. The Committee obtained some information suggesting that the Russian intelligence officer, with whom Manafort had a longstanding relationship, may have been connected to the GRU's hack-and-leak operation targeting the 2016 U.S. election. This is what collusion looks like.

- Volume 5 SSCI report on Russian Influence
- Paul Manafort and Russian Intelligence
- page 943

(U) Prior to joining the Trump Campaign in March 2016 and continuing throughout his time 6n the Campaign, Manafort directly and indirectly communicated with Kilimnik, Deripaska, and the pro-Russian oligarchs in Ukraine. On numerous occasions, Manafort sought to secretly share internal Campaign information with Kilimnik. The Committee was unable to reliably determine why Manafort shared sensitive internal polling data or Campaign strategy with Kilimnik or with whom Kilimnik further shared that information. The Committee had limited insight into Kilimnik's communications with Manafort and into Kilimnik's communications with other individuals connected to Russian influence operations, all of whom used communications security practices. The Committee obtained some information suggesting Kilimnik may have been connected to the GRU's hack and leak operation targeting the 2016 U.S. election. 

- Volume 5 SSCI report on Russian Influence
- Paul Manafort and Russian Intelligence
- page vi

The best case that demonstrates this, is how the detailed report from the SSCI clearly demonstrates the cooperation between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence. Paul Manafort, Trump’s original campaign manager who went to prison and was later pardoned by Trump, is mentioned in the SSCI report regularly for his cooperation with Russian intelligence.

To this very day, elements within the GOP, cooperate with Russian media to disseminate conspiracy theories and misinformation. This is obvious to the naked eye and without my professional expertise, by the similarities and verbatim synchronicity with messaging. Still, the Republicans in the House of Representatives support Putin by denying aid to Ukraine and synching their messaging with Russian influence operations.

Background reading:

• Putin’s Carlson interview shows the links between Trump talk and Russian messaging | Chatham House – International Affairs Think Tank

• How the GOP became the party of Putin | Brookings

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As we wrap this up, allow me to remind everyone that this essay is but an overview. My profession as an expert on influence regarding national security and in uniform, an operator, gives me deep insight into these matters. I know content, dissemination methods, strategies, tactics, who is connected to whom and for what purpose etc. For these reasons and more, my professional assessment is that all social media platforms require legal oversight and limitations imposed by Congress. Not to the point where free speech is impacted unreasonably, but to the point where no longer are American and global democratic nations, so adversely impacted by malign influence, that democracy itself is at stake.

At the moment and as my personal and ongoing tragic experiences with LinkedIn are concerned, I am confident in assessing that social media unrestricted, is a severe threat to democracy. Again, using LinkedIn as the example, in the eight years of the Trump era, I and other experts with first-hand and professional knowledge, have been the ones banned, restricted, suspended and falsely accused. The accusers on LinkedIn are the counterintelligence threats within the staff of the platform, and Microsoft’s unwillingness to discipline their child for selling out America and our allies.

LinkedIn’s parent company is Microsoft, who has enormous contracts with the US government and our allies. Microsoft is also, the world’s largest software corporation. If they don’t have the ability to protect subscribers like me and you from digital moderation, should we be paying them to manage our digital security? This is the type of question that congress should be asking rather than allowing one party to shut down all efforts to protect Americans and our allies. This is the one place where voters get the ultimate say. Every voter, in order to remain patriotic should be demanding protection from Congress, regardless of so-called, “party.” If you don’t want protection that threatens our very republic, you are voluntarily undermining your right to call yourself patriotic.

In closing, keep the following fact in mind; Russia’s successful attack on our 2016 election, is the first time in US history that we did not come together to fight against an outside enemy. The MAGA dominated GOP is brainwashed and now overtly supports Putin. That same GOP still refuses to support the rest of the nation’s protection from Putin. This should terrify all of us.

This is a bit long and sobering. I hope with today being Friday that this makes its way into your morning reading with coffee, tea or something stronger with an evening read. From my professional level, understanding threats like this, definitely encourages something stronger than coffee.

Enjoy your weekends TAT readers,

Cheers,

Paul