Daniel Jiang

Ulterior Motives and Psychological Warfare

By: Daniel Jiang

Introduction

As social media networks become increasingly integrated in our lives, we open the door for bad actors to influence how we view the world. Psychological warfare/operations otherwise known as psyops is defined as operations by states or groups to influence the behavior, perception, and attitudes of a target audience. This is usually achieved through a number of means such as propaganda machines and disinformation campaigns, although groups have gotten creative in the past. For that reason, psyops are one of the main methods by which governments push their agenda, often on foreign audiences, and sometimes even their own people. The concept of psychological warfare is nothing new, with records of intimidation campaigns existing as far back as the 6th century B.C. However, the term was coined and popularized during World War II to describe Ally operations to diminish Axis morale. 

Russian influence in U.S. elections

During the 2016 elections, Russia’s Internet Research Agency(IRA) actively sought to influence the US elections by waging propaganda campaigns across various popular social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and Twitter. The ultimate goal of the campaign was to suppress people from voting by weakening unity in the U.S. This in turn would distract America from more important issues on the global stage. Through extensive analysis, it was determined that the IRA had spent over $25 million USD to reach a combined 145 million people over various platforms. Once these sites began to crack down on state funded propaganda accounts, the IRA pivoted to new platforms to continue sewing dissent and continues to invest millions each year to sway American politics. With the 2024 presidential election coming up, this topic becomes more relevant than ever and Americans should be wary of rising propaganda on their social media feeds.

Chinese revision of Hong Kong and Uyghur camps

Similar to Russia, China has been caught on numerous occasions engaging in psyops, although for different reasons. In Chinese culture, there is a concept called saving face, which essentially means to avoid embarrassment and preserve one’s image. This is externalized in real life by China’s attempts to paint itself in a better light in the wake of its recent conflicts, those being the suppression of Hong Kong protesters as well as the treatment of its Uyghur population. It has done this by flooding social media sites with anti-Hong Kong posts in an attempt to alter Western perception and portray the protesters as terrorists. In addition, China suppresses all information in their country regarding the Uyghur leaving many Chinese people ignorant of the circumstances, as well as cracking down on those who speak up. In tangentially related news, the U.S. has made efforts to combat Chinese influence, and has moved to ban one of the most popular apps on the market, TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance. This was more of a privacy issue, but it’s in all likelihood that TikTok served ulterior social purposes for the Chinese government. 

U.S. government psyops on own citizens

With the two previous examples of foreign psyops, it is important to recognize that governments are not above deceiving their own citizens. The U.S. government has engaged in a number of psyops throughout its history, many of which were targeted at American citizens.

  1. Operation Mockingbird: CIA program in the 1950s that aimed to manipulate news stations to influence public opinion
  2. War on Terror: After the events on 911, the U.S. invested extensive time and resources to combat terrorism, both on American soil as well as overseas. While initially receptive by the public due to the sentiment of the time, it has come to be viewed in a negative light as people realized that the government used their fear and anger to promote American interests and justify the destabilization of many middle eastern countries, as well as a loss of civil liberties.
  3. COINTELPRO: FBI operation from the late 1950s to early 1970s focused on neutralizing domestic political organizations deemed potentially dangerous. After being exposed by journalist investigation and whistleblowers, it was determined by the public to be extremely unethical, violating a number of civil liberties, and subject to abuse as it was decided internally who is considered disruptive.

How to identify psyops

As far as cybersecurity goes, hackers may not be able to break into your system, but there are other ways to get into your head if you’re not vigilant enough. For that reason, here are some ways to identify psyops and stop them from influencing your opinions.

  1. Check your sources: It’s important to verify the validity of the source before believing something on the internet.
  2. Emotional Manipulation: Psyops will often look to evoke strong emotional responses from people and will use fear mongering, rage baiting, or general outrage posts to achieve this.
  3. Appeal to identity: People are tribal by nature and will unconsciously label things as part of an in or out group. Psyops look to exploit this and will appeal to people’s nationalism, or ideology to sew division.
  4. Timing: Groups will engage in psyops during important events like elections for their own gain.

Sources

Kovalev, Alexey. 2017. “The Secrets of Russia’s Propaganda War, Revealed.” The Moscow Times. The Moscow Times. March 2017. https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2017/03/01/welcome-to-russian-psychological-warfare-operations-101-a57301.

Wikipedia Contributors. 2024. “Psychological Warfare Division.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. February 10, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_Warfare_Division. 

Wikipedia Contributors. 2024. “Psychological Operations (United States).” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. April 6, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_operations_(United_States). 

“RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE in 2016 U.S. ELECTIONS | Federal Bureau of Investigation.” 2016. Federal Bureau of Investigation. 2016. https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/cyber/russian-interference-in-2016-u-s-elections

Wikipedia Contributors. 2024. “Russian Interference in the 2016 United States Elections.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. April 24, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections

Riley, Tonya. 2024. “TikTok Sale-Or-Ban Law Spurs Promise of Legal Fight: Explained.” @BLaw. April 27, 2024. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/tiktok-sale-or-ban-law-spurs-promise-of-legal-fight-explained. 

“COINTELPRO | FBI, Surveillance, Political Activism | Britannica.” 2024. In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/COINTELPRO. 

Wikipedia Contributors. 2024. “War on Terror.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. April 20, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_terror.