Russian web brigades - Misplaced Pages

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The Internet brigades or Web brigades (Template:Lang-ru simplified Chinese: 网特；; traditional Chinese: 網特) are governmental teams of on-line commentators that participate in political blogs and Internet forums to promote disinformation and prevent free discussions of undesirable subjects. Such teams are allegedly affiliated with Russian state propaganda department and security services and with Chinese internet police The state-sponsored "Internet brigades" could be confused with other organized teams of information fighters that may push private political agendas, be involved in astroturfing, or participate in election campaigns.

Internet brigades in Russia

First publication

This alleged phenomenon in RuNet was described in 2003 by journalist Anna Polyanskaya (a former assistant to assassinated Russian politician Galina Starovoitova), historian Andrey Krivov and political activist Ivan Lomako, from the Center of extremal journalism.

They described organized and professional "brigades", composed of ideologically and methodologically identical personalities, who were working in practically every popular liberal and pro-democracy Internet forums and Internet newspapers of RuNet.

One of their allegations was that prior to 1998–1999 about 70% of audience of Russian Internet were people of liberal views, composed of Russian middle class and people in emigration; but already in 2003 according to authors there were about 60-80% of "totalitarian" posts at Russian forums.

The activity of Internet teams allegedly appeared in 1999 and were organized by FSB, according to Polyanskaya.

Behavior and views

According to Polyanskaya and her colleagues, the behavior of people from the Internet brigades has distinct features, some of which are the following:

Any change in Moscow's agenda leads to immediate changes in the brigade's opinions.
Boundless loyalty to Vladimir Putin and his circle.
Respect and admiration for the KGB and FSB.
Nostalgia for the Soviet Union and propaganda of the Communist ideology, and constant attempts to present in a positive light the entire history of Russia and the Soviet Union, minimizing the number of people who died in repressions.
Anti-liberal, anti-American, anti-Chechen, anti-Semitic and anti-western opinions. Xenophobia, racism, approval of skinheads and pogroms.
Accusation of Russophobia against everyone who disagrees with them.
Hatred of dissidents and human rights organizations and activists, political prisoners and journalists, especially Anna Politkovskaya, Sergei Kovalev, Elena Bonner, Grigory Pasko, Victor Shenderovich, and Valeria Novodvorskaya.
Emigrants are accused of being traitors of the motherland. Some members will claim that they live in some Western country and tell stories about how much better life is in Putin's Russia.
Before the Iraq War, the brigade's anti-U.S. operations reached unseen scale. The original publication describes: "it sometimes seemed that the U.S. was not liberating the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein, but at a minimum had actually launched an attack on Russia and was marching on the Kremlin." However, it fell silent suddenly after Putin announced that Russia was not opposed to the victory of the coalition forces in Iraq.

Criticism of the original publication

A public discussion began in the Internet forum of the "Russian Journal", just a few days after the first publication by Polyanskaya and others, and it lasted for two months. Alexander Usupovski, head of the analytical department of the Federation Council of Russia (Russian Parliament) claimed Web brigades are conspiracy theory.. Yusupovskiy supposed, that officeers of GRU or FSB have more topical problems, than "comparing virtual penises" with liberals and emigrants. He concluded that "We would never make our country's military organizations and security services work under the rule of law and legal control, if won't learn to recognize rationally and objectively their necessity and usefulness for the country, state, society and citizens. Sweeping defamation and intentional discreditation with the help of "arguments", which are obviously false, only contribute to the extrusion of security services outside of rule of law and instigates them to chaos".

Public perception in Russia

In 2007 sociological analysis of big groups in Russian society published at Russian resource RIO-Center, it's mentioned that idea of existence of web-brigades is a widespread conspiracy theory in RuNet. Authors say "it's difficult to say whether hypothesis of existence of web-brigades corresponds to reality", "web brigades are conspiracy theory" but acknowledge that the users profess views on the existence of "web-brigades".

LiveJournal fighters

A member of National Bolshevik Party Roman Sadykhov reported about "LiveJournal fighters", directed and paid from the Kremlin and instructions given to them by Vladislav Surkov, a close aide of Vladimir Putin Surkov allegedly called Livejournal "a very important sector of work" and said that people's brains must be "nationalized" . He instructed "LiveJournal fighters" that

"We are losing in the Internet in that respect. It is always easier to break down things than to do something positive. What you are doing are jokes and minor infractions. Not only methods, but also goals must be radical. We must blow this romantics out of them . It is important not only to protect the authorities - this is understood, but we need to attract young people who can work creatively in the Internet. This is an important communication place of young people. Make them interested in conversations with you."

Russian state security teams

Russian intelligence expert Andrei Soldatov made the following points when asked by Yevgenia Albats about "internet brigades" :

Russian state security teams actively disrupt work of certain political blogs;
One of the teams, who called themselves GRU officers, was actively involved in a disinformation campaign prior to US invasion of Iraq;
The teams are also involved in hacker attacks, and they have probably attacked his own web site during the Moscow theater hostage crisis;
Some of the "internet brigades" are coordinated by the Russian signals intelligence, which is currently a part of the FSB and has been formerly a part of 16th KGB department;
There are also such teams from the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Internet brigades in Russian literature

The alleged FSB activities on the Internet have been described in the short story "Anastasya" by Russian writer Grigory Svirsky, who was interested in the moral aspects of their work. He wrote: "It seems that offending, betraying, or even "murdering" people in the virtual space is easy. This is like killing an enemy in a video game: one does not see a disfigured body or the eyes of the person who is dying right in front of you. However, the human soul lives by its own basic laws that force it to pay the price for the virtual crime in his real life".

Kremlin's Agents of Influence

Paul Goble, director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, claims "the Kremlin has dispatched its own “agents of influence” to political forums on the Internet both to portray itself as having more support than it has and to suggest that its opponents who would like to see a more democratic Russia with closer ties to the West are an ever more marginal group"

Russian brigades in the Polish Internet

Russian "Internet brigades" allegedly appeared in Poland in 2005, according to claims of anonymous "Polish experts on Russian affairs", reported by the Polish newspaper Tygodnik Powszechny. "at least a dozen active Russian agents work in Poland, also investigating the Polish Internet.

They are claimed to scrutinize Polish websites, and also to perform such actions, as—for instance—contributing to Internet forums on large portals (like Gazeta.pl, Onet.pl, WP.pl). Labeled as Polish Internet users, they incite anti-Semitic or anti-Ukrainian discussions or disavow articles published on the web."

Internet propaganda teams in mainland China

It has been reported that in 2005, departments of provincial and municipal governments in mainland China began creating teams of Internet commentators from propaganda and police departments and offering them classes in Marxism, propaganda techniques, and the Internet. They are reported to guide discussion on public bulletin boards away from politically sensitive topics by posting opinions anonymously or under false names. "They are actually hiring staff to curse online", said Liu Di, a Chinese student who was arrested for posting her comments in blogs.