wiczipedia

Awesome question, thank you so much for asking! I think for more reddit users these will be pretty simple, but...

1. Check the source- if you're looking at a website and it seems shady or is new to you: does it have an editorial masthead? Does it have contact info (a phsyical address and phone number)? Has the author written anything before, and is their portfolio similar in terms of its editorial integrity?
2. Has the article been printed anywhere else? Drop a line into Google and see if the same text appears on other websites- this is a good indication of a for-profit disinfo or misinfo network.
3. Reverse image search! Misattributed images are huge during times of crisis. Everyone should know how to reverse image search. This is an in depth guide. https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/how-tos/2019/12/26/guide-to-using-reverse-image-search-for-investigations/

I think this is a really smart point and one of the reasons I wrote the book! A lot of people don't know the MANY details of their private lives that are available online-- not only the ones they willingly give up, but those that are bought and sold by ad exchanges. I hope to see some legislation introduced that requires platforms to obtain informed consent from users- that is, informing them exactly what data is going to be used, how, and when. But we also need broader awareness campaigns that educate everyone from children to adults about how social media platforms work- we'd all get taken in a lot less by misleading advertising, disinformation, abuse, and beyond if this were better understood.

Yes, an intermediate goal is to promote discord and division, but in service of what?

I see Russia's influence operations as having three goals, broadly.

1. The Kremlin wants to keep us (the West, broadly) turned inward, distracted by our domestic problems, so that we aren't paying attention to Russia's adventurism around the world, whether in Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela, or even within Russia's own borders, where human rights abuses have been rampant.
2. The Kremlin hopes to drive disengagement in the democratic process by flooding the zone with information. Democracy doesn't work without participation, and failing democracies pose less of a threat to Putin's authoritarian rule.
3. Putin hopes to return Russia to great power status- and I think he's been pretty successful in this regard. Despite not having a very strong economy, Russia is back on the world stage. The West has discussed it every day for the past four years. And even though Putin hasn't absolved of his transgressions (such as the illegal annexation of Crimea), leaders like Trump and Macron are considering inviting him back to the G7.

It's interesting- when I've interviewed high school and college-aged women, they're extraordinarily savvy abou the dangers of the internet. I'd wager that they have better personal online security practices than many adults do. What scares me, though, is the degree to which they're self-censoring. One of the young women in a focus group I did for my book said "I don't want a lifestyle that public" because she was afraid of what she had seen some of her peers and some well-known women endure online.

So, in addition to making sure they have good cyber hygiene (complex passwords, 2FA), and good operational security (make sure you're not posting pictures of your pet with its tags visible, pictures of your house, real-time posts from your location), and making sure they know how to use the (insufficient) safety tools and reporting functions social media platforms provide, I would encourage them to speak up! I don't want young women to self-censor or silence themselves in anticipation of what might happen- I want them to feel confident they've got the right practices in place so that if they do get harassed, it stops online. If they aren't making their voices heard, we're letting harassers win,

And finally, as parents (I've got my own little one on the way!), we should make sure that our kids know they've got a support network and that they don't need to hide what has happened to them online- that we're here to listen and help them navigate a world that can be pretty horrifying even for adults.

Hi all, sorry for delay- power outage here but I'm back :)

You're absolutely right! Information overload or a "firehose of falsehood" (as the RAND Corp calls it) is part of the strategy.

I think in part, the media needs to do a good job distilling information and laying it out for people. A great example of this is the series that PBS Newshour did distilling the Mueller report for those that didn't want to slog through it in print. That's the sort of thing more outlets need to be doing- and public journalism is really good at it. I'm a huge advocate for journalism as a public good, and hope we as a country start to invest in it more. We only spend $3 per person per year on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. We can do so much better, and provide quality information to people who might otherwise live in news deserts (NPR and PBS provide some of the only local coverage in some parts of the country).