The moment Prigozhins troll farms first hit the news.. I knew there needed to be a counter. Being an American I was always curious as to where the line was between freedom of speech and Uncle Sam fighting or countering enemy influence ops on social media. Can the US Gov actually do anything to counter such without infringing on freedom of speech? I had been working alongside Ghost Security Group and CTRLSEC to counter terrorist recruitment and propaganda online.. but there wasn't anything to counter ruzzian influence ops or propaganda. This needed to change.
Being a digital marketing professional and intelligence community enthusiast, i knew that one way to counter ruzzian influence online, was to promote a counter narrative. I was already familiar with the amazing work of InformNapalm and as they put out quality content and reliable information, I began working as a volunteer to help them grow online and counter ruzzian bull shit by promoting the truth!
I think the idea of ruzzian influence ops and the impact they could have via social media had yet to be recognized at the time or maybe it was just severely underestimated. I started working as a digital marketing volunteer for Ukraine in general around 2015. As time went on, and as I watched ruzzian nonsense on social media gain traction, my feelings regarding the need for a counter initiative grew exponentially. The 2016 election interference, hacked email leaks, driving a wedge into our country by creating protest vs counter protest movements on Facebook. I still feel that we have not even seen the true impact of these efforts. Russia wrote the book on hybrid warfare with things like the Gerasimov doctrine and playing the long game is what they do best.
While some have the perspective of the foot soldier on the ground, only looking at where they are walking. Limited vision. ruzzia works from the perspective of a fighter pilot. A wider field of view. Being able to see 20 miles downrange. 20 years into a war. It wasn't until the full on invasion of Ukraine that i made a serious effort to create some form of counter initiative to ruzzian influence online. While my efforts are not the focus of this article, they eventually led me to the IT Army of Ukraine.
I was exited to see a volunteer cyber army forming and bringing the fight to the enemy in a big way. To date, causing billions in damages to ruzzian infrastructure. When I saw them creating the worlds first real initiative to not only counter, but actually fight ruzzian influence and bot armies on social media.. I almost fell out of my chair in excitement. While I had been making my own attempts, I was only one dude with limited resources. The IT Army of Ukraine had accomplished what I had wanted to build for years..
The worlds first counter-troll farm! A digital Army and resistance movement that takes the fight to the enemy on social media and the right weapon for the job! That weapon is called activeness.social ️
While I had made similar efforts, and our own website here is a continuation of that.. what the IT Army is doing, is much more. We are a small volunteer group with limited time and resources. Due to this, I try to focus on one front, one battlefield we are all familiar with. The Twitter X platform. I feel that this is the front line of the information war and this is where I focus our attention. But this is only one front, in a vast digital war zone.
#ActivenessSocial from IT Army of Ukraine enables public participation in the fight against ruzzian aggression on all digital fronts. Instagram, YouTube.. all the things!
The sexy buzz-word side of cyber such as DDoS gets a lot of press and IT Army of Ukraine is deserving of all such attention. There are some great articles out there highlighting their efforts. A recent good example being "The Democratization of Irregular Warfare" by The United States Army University Press .. A ways back I did a fun remote talk about the efforts of IT Army Ukraine for a United States National Security Hacker Convention held by volunteers from The US Army 780th Military Intelligence Brigade called AvengerCon VIII. So it was amazing to see the Army article giving the movement further much deserved recognition.. but something bothered me about this article and many others.. It needed more #ActivenessSocial !
The IT Army of Ukraine has pushed the boundaries of the digital frontier in big ways. Activeness Social is on the cutting edge of information warfare and I felt the effort deserved its own article. Similar to how we have a battle station full of harmful X accounts that eagerly await your artillery barrage, Activeness Social has a workstation full of tasks that you can complete to help counter propaganda!
But that's not all..
It also has work to help support the community! An important part of countering harmful influence operations and hate online, is community support. Not just smacking down the enemy, but lifting each other up at the same time. You can find a lot of supportive work there and even request support! Shares on social media, subscribers and the like!
Our battle station is only updated every week or two thus allowing plenty of time for one account to work down targets without burning out. Activeness Social has a much wider variety of work and we encourage the ambitious supporter or information warrior to use both!
There are also many fun features such as the cool little motivational messages that pop up after you complete each task! Its important to remember that the narrative front.. is still the front line of a war. The enemy turns the worst of it into a media weapon. Its ugly and media fatigue is a thing. But with Activeness Social I walk away after a days work smiling. I laugh my way through the tasks, and can rest well in the evening knowing I took part in the writing of history and defense of Ukraine.
I could take up more of your time explaining how it works and how awesome it is.. but the best way to learn, is to explore for yourself! If you are looking for a way to make a difference regarding the ongoing war in Ukraine, The IT Army of Ukraine makes it possible for anyone in the world to participate.
Check out their official website, join the Telegram chat, and put in some work!
No matter how you fight, or where.. what you do matters. Thank you for being one of the helpers and contributing to the world being a little less ugly.
Below is the video of my informal remote talk for AvengerCon VIII about #ITArmyUkraine and the ongoing cyber war in Ukraine. Gratitude to them for the amazing opportunity. If you enjoyed the article or find it informative please share!
