Operation Infektion Essays (385 words) - Propaganda Techniques

Andrey Ryabchenko EXTRA CREDIT HIS 5900, Robert Tester Operation Infektion : How Russia Perfected the Art Of War New York Times shares their opinion regarding Russian agenda in plotting the fake news to undermine the wholesomeness of American society. NYT compares fake news to the virus that penetrates the body and turning its own cells to enemies. Indeed, fake news and disinformation have devastating impact on society if it reaches a certain scale. Notorious KGB, Russian government agency, has had the agenda of spreading the fake news since times of Soviet Union. In the last quarter of 20 th century, KGB actively worked on development of fake stories that could undermine the wholesomeness of American society. These stories took a rise from existing issues of American society, so called "cracks of society" by KGB. These could be any topic that currently bothered Americans : r acism, homosexuals, politics, foreign relationships of the country, etc. As a part of KGB strategy of disinformation, fake stories had to be spread by sources that are seemed to be unrelated to Soviet Union, preferably sources of a target country. Such a strategy reflects on example of a post in Indian news source, that accused United States of developing AIDS virus in laboratory conditions to kill homosexuals and prisoners. It took few years for this fake news to spread around the globe and finally appear on American televisio n. This story vastly resonated in American society and influenced perception of America by rest of the world. United States assumes that Soviet Union was the cause for the origin of this topic. After crash of Soviet Union, fake news issue was supposed to disappear, but new Russian leader, former KGB agent, Vladimir Putin, seems to continue the "Cold War" that uses no weapon. With rise of internet spread of fake news took a new tremendous scale. Today, big social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook facilitate disinformation. Well known scandal, during last presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, takes origin from online source Wikileaks . Dishonest rumor s about Hillary Clinton, believed to be made up by the Russian government to influence the election in America. United States believes that main Russian agenda behind disinformation is undermining the wholesomeness of American society and gaining more global power and influence.