The web brigades (Russian: Веб-бригады )[1] is a conspiracy theory that says there exist online teams of commentators linked to Russian security services that participate in political blogs and Internet forums to promote disinformation and prevent free discussions of undesirable subjects. Allegations of the existence of web brigades were made in the article "The Virtual Eye of the Big Brother" by French journalist Anna Polyanskaya in April, 2003, in US online media Vestnik Online.[1]
An article "Conspiracy theory" by Alexander Yusupovskiy on 25 April 2003, published in Russian online media Russian Journal, edited by Russian politologist Gleb Pavlovsky, criticized Polyanskaya's theory of web brigades as an attempt at creating myths by people claiming to be Russian liberal thinkers in a response to the massive "sobering up" of the Russian people. A point was made that the observed behaviour of forum participants may be explained without a theory of FSB-affiliated brigades.[2]
It was mentioned in the 2007 sociological research of large groups in Russian society by the RIO-Center, the belief in the existence of web-brigades is widespread in RuNet. Authors say "it's difficult to say whether hypothesis of existence of web-brigades corresponds to reality", but acknowledge that users professing views and methods ascribed to members of web-brigades may be found at all opposition forums of RuNet.[3]
The expression "red web-brigades" (Красные веб-бригады) used by Anna Polyanskaya as a title to her article is a pun with "Red Brigades".
In February 2009 Russian opposition activist Tatyana Korchevnaya revealed her personal account as an insider in an Internet group, which used methods resembling those of ascribed to web-brigades, but whose goals were entirely different: instead of supporting Putin's regime, members of that group combated defenders of the regime.[4]
In March 2011, The Guardian published an article named "US spy operation that manipulates social media", describing a new initiative of the US military on influencing social media sites. The manipulation program includes "using fake online personas" to "spread pro-American propaganda". The US Centcom comments that the US-based Facebook and Twitter networks are not targeted by the program, as the US laws prohibit US state agencies from spreading propaganda among the US citizens.[5]
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This alleged phenomenon in RuNet was described in 2003 by a French journalist Anna Polyanskaya (a former assistant to assassinated Russian politician Galina Starovoitova[6]), French journalist Andrey Krivov and US programmer and political activist Ivan Lomako. They claimed there exist organized and professional "brigades", composed of ideologically and methodologically identical personalities, who were working in popular liberal and pro-democracy Internet forums and Internet newspapers of RuNet.
The activity of Internet teams appeared in 1999 and were organized by the Russian state security service, according to Polyanskaya.[1][7] According to authors, about 70% of audience of Russian Internet were people of generally liberal views prior to 1998–1999, however sudden surge (about 60–80%) of "antidemocratic" posts suddenly occurred at many Russian forums in 2000.
Alexander Yusupovskiy, head of the analytical department of the Federation Council of Russia (Russian Parliament upper house) published in 2003 an article "Conspiracy theory" in Russian Journal with criticism of theory of web brigades.[2]
Yusupovskiy's points included:
An article based upon the original Polyanskaya, Krivov, Lomko's article on web brigades and authored by the Independent Customers' Association was published in May 2008 at Expertiza.Ru website, the term web brigades replaced with the term Team "G".[8]
Sergey Golubitsky, journalist of Russian IT-related magazine Computerra commented on the story in July 2008[9]:
| “ | To tell the truth, I experienced the sense of paranoidal disturbance after getting informed of the results of Name of Russia vote and the report of the Independent Customers' Association. That feeling is familiar to everybody who upon having thumbed through the "Popular Medical Handbook" immediately unveils that one has the majority of uncurable diseases, symptomes of which precisely match your physical condition. So, judging by the "mainstream propaganda" points and the list of "major enemies", your old columnist must unambiguously be in service of FSB and join the well-matched ranks of the Team "G". But he doesn't – what's the trouble! And likewise, there are no members of the Team "G" among the vast majority of my friends – writers, artists, producers, journalists, medics (the very intelligentsia that we, as defined by the ICA, have to hate mortally – that is, to hate ourselves...), while they fully share my worldview.
The more, the worse is it. The "mainsteam propaganda" is abundant of the great amount of saddening discrepancies with my believes: so, feeling sincere nostalgia for the USSR and deep distaste (hatred is too strong a feeling for me) to human rights defenders, Yeltsin and the abovementioned list of "major enemies" at the level of names and last names, I'm absolutely indifferent to "independent journalists" (because I'm the one myself), as well as to all tribal definitions of the list – Chechens, Jews, Americans. What the complete nonsense?! Why on earth would I hate all Europeans?! Or to the contrary – love employers or line-crossers of KGB?! Or – love Putin with the modern Rossiyansky authorities?[9] |
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| “ | Does the Team "G" prowl expanses of the RuNet? Quite probably. Moreover it's likely to prowl, why wouldn't it? But in exactly the same manner there's the Team "E" from the opposite camp, represented by the anonymous Independent Customers' Association that prowls, honestly fulfilling its agenda and entering released funds. But how are these "teams" related to real life?! Absolutely no way. Both of them are here at work while we, the ordinary inhabitants of the RuNet, live here. [9] | ” |
Tatyana Korchevnaya, a former candidate to the Deputy of the State Duma from the Other Russia list,[10] a former United Civil Front coordinator of the Primorsky Krai,[11] supporter of Trepashkin [12] and Khodorkovsky,[13] participant of protest demonstrations,[14][15] an author of the top tenth political blog of 2008 [16] confessed in February 2009 in her blog that she was a member of an organization of Russia's "discontented", aimed to run a mass Internet campaign to discredit the authorities.[4][17][18]
The project was coordinated by a Moscow-based manager, whose name Tatyana did not reveal.[17] The goal of the participants was massive Internet campaigning, disputing those who were contented with their living in Russia, advertising Kasparov and Dissenters Marches, and talking about atrocities of the "bloody regime".[17]
The participants used multiple nicknames to combat their opponents.[17]
Korchevnaya considered such scheme abnormal: "I believe that if someone is afraid to say what they think out loud from their own names then they are not a free person – it's as if they're playing for both teams."[17] She explained her confession with getting tired of the lie of those who she sincerelly trusted before.[17] The other reason was a concern for herself:
| “ | With every passing day I become ever more saddened by the things they told me. I began to experience hitherto unfamiliar feelings, which I only later figured out as like being a "sacrificial lamb on the altar of democracy".[4] | ” |
According to an anonymous source Tatyana referenced to, after she left the project it was "launched on a larger scale than was planned at the start", with participants "planning to ditch their real life jobs and embark on this project full time, especially now that they are going to get paid for it".[4]
In 2011, several major Western media reported the United States government launched a program, named Operation Earnest Voice. The aim of the initiative is to use sockpuppets to spread pro-American propaganda on social networking sites based outside of the US.[19][20][21][22]
The US government signed a $2,8m contract with the Ntrepid web-security company to develop a specialized software, allowing agents of the government to post propaganda on "foreign-language websites".
Main characteristics of the software, as stated in the software development request,[23] are:
The US government "psy-ops warriors" are banned by the US laws to spread propaganda among US citizens, and the US military said the US-based Facebook and Twitter would not be targeted by web-brigades.[19] At the same time, Isaac R. Porche, a researcher at the RAND Corp. claims it would not be easy to exclude US audiences, when dealing with internet communications.[22]