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The '''Internet brigades''' or '''Web brigades''' ({{lang-ru|Веб-бригады}} {{zh-ts|t=網特|s=网特；}})<ref name="China">, by Jonathan Watts in Beijing, ], ], ]</ref><ref name="Polyanskaya"/> are governmental teams of on-line commentators that participate in ]s and ] to promote ] and prevent free discussions of undesirable subjects. Such teams are allegedly affiliated with Russian state propaganda department and ] and with Chinese ]<ref name="Bagryansky"> {{ru icon}} by ] and Vladimur Bagryansky, publication of the Russian Center for Extreme Journalism </ref>. The state-sponsored "web brigades" exist along with other organized teams of information fighters that may push private ]s,<ref> , by Samvel Martirosyan, ], ],</ref> be involved in ],<ref>], ''The Guardian'' (UK) (posted by Norfolk Genetic Information Network), ], ],</ref> or participate in ]s.<ref>Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, '']'', ], ].</ref>
{{Cleanup-laundry|date=September 2008}}
{{Onesource|date=September 2008}}
{{POV|date=September 2008}}
{{weasel|date=September 2008}}
The '''web brigades''' ({{lang-ru|Веб-бригады}} )<ref name="Polyanskaya"/> are allegedly, in the view of some Russian liberal intellectuals{{who}}, online teams of commentators linked to ] that participate in ]s and ] to promote ] and prevent free discussions of
undesirable subjects. Allegations of the existence of web brigades were made in a 2003 article "The Virtual Eye of the ]"<ref name="Polyanskaya"/>


==Web brigades in Russia==
An article "Conspiracy theory" published in in 2003 criticized theory of web brigades as attempts of creating myths by Russian liberal thinkers in a response for massive sobering up of Russian people. A point was made that observed behaviour of forum participants may be explained without a theory of FSB-affiliated brigades.<ref name="Usup"/>
===First publication===
This alleged phenomenon in ] was described in 2003 by ] Anna Polyanskaya <ref name=Pol1>, MAOF publishing group</ref> (a former assistant to assassinated ] politician ]<ref>{{ru icon}} , by Anna Polyanskaya</ref>), ] Andrey Krivov and political activist Ivan Lomako, from the ''Center for extreme journalism''.


They described organized and professional "brigades", composed of ideologically and methodologically identical personalities, who were working in practically every popular ] and pro-] Internet forums and Internet newspapers of RuNet.
As mentioned in 2007 sociological research of big groups in Russian society by the , the idea of existence of web-brigades is a widespread point of view 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. <ref>, by RIO-Center. (in Russian)</ref>

The expression "red web-brigades" (Красные веб-бригады) used by Anna Polyanskaya as a title to her article is a pun with "]".

==Web brigades in Russia==
===Polyanskaya's article===
This alleged phenomenon in ] was described in 2003 by ] Anna Polyanskaya (a former assistant to assassinated ] politician ]<ref>{{ru icon}} , by Anna Polyanskaya</ref>), ] Andrey Krivov and political activist Ivan Lomako. They described organized and professional "brigades", composed of ideologically and methodologically identical personalities, who were working in practically every popular ] and pro-] Internet forums and Internet newspapers of RuNet.


The activity of Internet teams appeared in 1999 and were organized by the ], according to Polyanskaya. <ref name="Bagryansky"> {{ru icon}} by ] and Vladimur Bagryansky, publication of the Russian Center for Extreme Journalism </ref><ref name="Polyanskaya"> by Anna Polyanskaya, Andrei Krivov, and Ivan Lomko, Vestnik online, ], ]</ref> According to authors, about 70% of audience of Russian Internet were people of generally liberal views prior to 1998&ndash;1999, however sudden surge (about 60-80%) of "antidemocratic" posts suddenly occurred at many Russian forums in 2000. The activity of Internet teams appeared in 1999 and were organized by the ], according to Polyanskaya. <ref name="Bagryansky"/><ref name="Polyanskaya"> by Anna Polyanskaya, Andrei Krivov, and Ivan Lomko, Vestnik online, ], ] ()</ref> According to authors, about 70% of audience of Russian Internet were people of generally liberal views prior to 1998&ndash;1999, however sudden surge (about 60-80%) of "antidemocratic" posts suddenly occurred at many Russian forums in 2000.


===Views===
According to Polyanskaya and her colleagues, the behavior of people from the web brigades has distinct features, some of which are the following:<ref name="Polyanskaya"/> According to Polyanskaya and her colleagues, the behavior of people from the web brigades has distinct features, some of which are the following:<ref name="Polyanskaya"/>
*Any change in Moscow's agenda leads to immediate changes in the brigade's opinions. *Any change in Moscow's agenda leads to immediate changes in the brigade's opinions.
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*Before the ], 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.<ref name="Polyanskaya"/> *Before the ], 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.<ref name="Polyanskaya"/>
===Tactics===
Polyanskaya's article<ref name="Polyanskaya"/> describes the "tactics" of the alleged web brigades:
These brigades reportedly use a number of common tactics.
*'''Frequent changes of pseudonyms'''.<ref name="Polyanskaya"/> *'''Frequent changes of pseudonyms'''.<ref name="Polyanskaya"/>
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*'''Destruction of inconvenient forums'''. For example, on the site of the ], all critics of ] and the FSB "were suddenly and without any explanation banned from all discussions, despite their having broken none of the site’s rules of conduct. All the postings of this group of readers, going back a year and a half, were erased by the site administrator."<ref name="Polyanskaya"/> *'''Destruction of inconvenient forums'''. For example, on the site of the ], all critics of ] and the FSB "were suddenly and without any explanation banned from all discussions, despite their having broken none of the site’s rules of conduct. All the postings of this group of readers, going back a year and a half, were erased by the site administrator."<ref name="Polyanskaya"/>

===Criticism=== ===Criticism===


Alexander Yusupovskiy, head of the analytical department of the ] (Russian Parliament) published in 2003 an article "Conspiracy theory" in ] with criticism of theory of web brigades. <ref name="Usup"> , by Alexander Yusupovskiy, Russian Journal, ], ]</ref> Alexander Yusupovskiy, head of the analytical department of the ] (Russian Parliament) asserted that web brigades are a ].<ref name="Usup"> , by Alexander Yusupovskiy, Russian Journal, ], ]</ref> Yusupovskiy's points included:
*There is difference between "dislike of hegemonic policy of the United States" at Russian forums and "quite friendly attitude towards usual Americans". Aggression and xenophobia doesn't characterize one side but is a common place of polemics, well met not only among Russian patriots, but among Russian emigrants from US, Israel, or other countries as well.
*Change of attitude of virtual masses in 1998-1999 could be caused by ] which "crowned liberal decade", rather than "mysterious bad guys".
*Authors exclude from their interpretation of events all other hypotheses, such as internet activity of a group of some "skinheads", ]s; or hackers able to get IP addresses of their opponents.
*Officeers of ] or ] have more topical problems, than "comparing virtual penises" with liberals and emigrants.<ref name="Usup"/>Yusupovskiy concluded that
{{Quotation|"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".<ref name="Usup"/>}}


===Support===
Yusupovskiy's points included:
Russian intelligence expert ] made the following points when asked by ] about "web brigades" <ref> , a talk show by ] at the ], January 22, 2006; interview with ] and others </ref>:
*Russian state security teams actively disrupt work of certain political ];
*One of the teams, who called themselves ] officers, was actively involved in a disinformation campaign prior to ];
*The teams are also involved in ] attacks, and they have probably attacked his own web site during the ];
*Some of the "web brigades" are coordinated by the Russian ], which is currently a part of the ] and has been formerly a part of 16th ] department;
*There are also such teams from the ].


], 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"<ref>] </ref>
*According to Yusupovskiy, an active forum participant, it's not the first time he's faced an unfair method of polemics, when a person with "liberal democratic views" accused one's opponent of being an FSB agent as a final argument. Yusupovskiy himself didn't take Web brigades theory seriously, "naively" considering that officers of GRU or FSB have more topical problems than "comparing virtual penises" with liberals and emigrants. His own experience at forums also did not give him a reason proving the theory.
*Yusupovskiy considered Polyanskaya's article an interesting opportunity to draw a line of demarcation between analytics and its imitation. According to Yusupovskiy, authors of the article are obsessed with "a single but strong affection": to find a "Big Brother" beyond any phenomena not fitting their mindsets. Yusupovskiy called an article a classic illustration of reverted "]".
*Although Yusupovskiy himself has a list of claims against Russian security services and their presense in virtual world (as "according to statements of media every security service is busy in the Internet tracking terrorism, extremism, narcotic traffic, human trafficking and child pornography"), his claims are of different nature than those of Polyanskaya.
*Criticising Polyanskaya's point that Russian forums after 9/11 show "outstanding level of malice and hatred of the USA, gloat, slander and inhumanity" as "undifferentiated assessment bordering lie and slander", Yusupovskiy noted that there is a difference between "dislike of hegemonic policy of the United States" at Russian forums and "quite friendly attitude towards usual Americans". Aggression and xenophobia don't characterize one side but are a common place of discussion (as Yusupovskiy suggested, illusion of anonymity and absence of censorship allows such stuff to be taken from subconsciousness that won't let to be spoken aloud by an internal censor otherwise). According to Yusupovskiy,
{{Quotation|There's no lack of gloat of other kind — e.g. over Russian losses in Chechnya — or manifestations of brutal malice against "commies", "under men", Russians, Russia in posts of some our former compatriots from Israel, USA and other countries. And in a discussion of Palestineans or Arabs, "beasts", "not people", etc. are perhaps the most decent definitions given by many (not all) western participants of forums. It's specially touching to observe "briefings of hatred" (such things happen too), when Russian, Israeli and American patriots unanimously blame "Chechen-Palestinean-Islamic" terrorists...<ref name="Usup"/>}}
*Commenting on the change of attitude of virtual masses in 1998-1999 authors evade any mention of the 1998 ] which "crowned liberal decade", preferring to blame "mysterious bad guys or Big Brother" for that change.
{{Quotation|"''About 80% of authors at all web forums very aggressively and uniformly blame the USA''" as authors note, making a conclusion at the same time: "''at a moment amount of totalitarian opinions at Russian forums became 60%-80%''". Try to feel semantics of "extremal journalism" mindset and its logics of antithesises: either apology of Bush'es America while spitting on one's own country, either — totalitarian agentry. To illustrate "protective totalitarian" mindset, authors quote several malicious posts from masses of forum flapjaw: "''Security services existed in all times, all democratic states of the West had, have and will be having them.''" Or: "''FSB is the same security service like FBI in the USA or Mossad in Israel or Mi-6 in Great Britain''". And etc. I understand that I risk of being called "totalitarian", but quite honestly I'm having difficulties to recognize signs of totalitarianism in the above quotes. As authors continue, "''there are quite less real people with totalitarian views than one may consider after having a casual look on posts in any forum''". Here one can only sigh: would they look on ] or opinion polls results, how Stalin's popularity doesn't diminish and even rises, how meaning and emotional connotations of the word "democrat" changed (from positive to negative), and would they seriously consider these tendencies of development of social consciousness...<ref name="Usup"/>}}
*Authors exclude from their interpretation of events all other hypotheses, such as internet activity of a group of some "skinheads", ]s or simply unliberal students; or hackers able to get IP addresses of their opponents.
*According to Yusupovskiy, authors treat "independence of public opinion" in spirit of irreconcilable antagonism with "positive image of Russia".<ref name="Usup"/>


===Public perception in Russia===
Yusupovskiy finally commented on Polyanskaya's article:
In 2007 sociological analysis of big groups in Russian society published at Russian resource , 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". <ref>, by RIO-Center. (in Russian)</ref>
{{Quotation|"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".<ref name="Usup"/>}}


==="LiveJournal fighters"===
===Discussion on control over the Internet===
A member of ] Roman Sadykhov reported about "] fighters", directed and paid from the Kremlin and instructions given to them by ], a close aide of ] <ref>{{ru icon}} , grani.ru, ], ]</ref> Surkov allegedly called Livejournal "a very important sector of work" <ref name="Surkov">, '']'', ], ]</ref> and said that people's brains must be "]" . He instructed "LiveJournal fighters" that
In 2006 radio talk show hosted by ] with a topic "Control over the Internet: How does that happen?", Russian journalist ] made the following points<!-- when asked by Albats about "web brigades" --><ref name=Albats_talk> , a talk show by ] at the ], January 22, 2006; interview with ] and others </ref>:
*There are countries with greater or less control over the Internet; but there is control over the Internet in Russia;
*During the ], a group of people calling themselves ] officers published allegedly internal GRU information on American losses in Iraq — this information was shown on the background of Anti-american hysteria and was well consumed. Later it turned out this information was not credible, but this effectively didn't change the result;
*After ] Russian ] issued a statement that ] "is a very bad resource", and after two days two teams calling themselves hackers appeared, to arrange hacker attacks against Kavkaz Center;
*Soldatov doesn't think web brigades are fiction. He had related issues with his own site, especially during such events like ];
*One of structures having related business with the Internet is ], which is currently a part of the ] and has been formerly a part of 16th ] department;
*There is a related agency in ] with competent people who can do such things. <ref name=Albats_talk/>


{{Quotation|"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."<ref name="Surkov"/>}}
Other participant of the talk show, Russian political scientist ] made the following points:
*There are countries with control over the Internet, there's none in Russia; there may be control understood as observation<!--surveillance-->, but there's no tool<!--mechanism--> to forbid any certain resource;
*Internet is good as the space where authorities and opposition are placed in absolutely equal conditions and they need to actually struggle and convince people. It's impossible to actually prohibit in the Internet, one needs to win ;
*Professional activity exists for long in the Internet — as many sites are professional media-structures with a team and owners perhaps — in a way a newspaper is. And coordinated work of these resources is possible. Commenting on a possibility that besides open structures there are closed ones imitating activity of youths, Gelman said he had an exact feeling it's fake;
*Answering Albats' question about possibilities of control over Internet as a means to exert influence on youths, Gelman asserted that authorities, opposition and America are all equal players in question of control and attempts of influence. Unlike e.g. television or newspapers all players in the Internet have equal possibilities, every player tries to do one's sort of work;
*Answering Albats' question "How control over Internet is technically organized?", Gelman noted that there are two major concepts: either the information is filtered before an user may access it ("premoderation"), either "postmoderation". While the first is the case in China, where access to certain types of resources is physically blocked, Gelman considers it a bad practice and it is absolutely unacceptable for Russia. Gelman thinks there must be control over the Internet in Russia, but only in the form of an agency searching for criminals in the Internet, tracking their IPs to get personal information, as well as there must be a mechanism to impose a penalty on such people. <ref name=Albats_talk/>


===Internet brigades in Russian literature===
==="LiveJournal fighters"===
The alleged ] activities on the Internet have been described in the short story "Anastasya" by Russian writer ], who was interested in the moral aspects of their work.<ref name="Svirsky>" ] </ref> 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"''.<ref name="Bagryansky"/>
A member of ] Roman Sadykhov claimed that he secretly infiltrated pro-Kremlin organizations of "] fighters", allegedly directed and paid from the Kremlin and instructions given to them by ], a close aide of ] <ref>{{ru icon}} , grani.ru, ], ]</ref> Surkov allegedly called Livejournal "a very important sector of work" <ref name="Surkov">, '']'', ], ]</ref> and said that people's brains must be "]".

==Outside Russia==
===Russian brigades in the Polish Internet===
Russian "Internet brigades" reportedly appeared in ] in 2005. According to claims of anonymous "Polish experts on Russian affairs", reported by the Polish newspaper ], "at least a dozen active Russian agents work in Poland, also investigating the Polish Internet. They are claimed to scrutinize Polish websites (like those supporting ]ian opposition), and also to perform such actions, as&mdash;for instance&mdash;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."<ref name="Tygodnik"> , ], 13/2005</ref>

===Internet propaganda teams in mainland China===
It has been reported<ref name="China">, by Jonathan Watts in Beijing, ], ], ]</ref> that in 2005, departments of provincial and municipal governments in ] began creating teams of Internet commentators from propaganda and police departments and offering them classes in ], ] techniques, and the ]. 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 ], a Chinese student who was arrested for posting her comments in ].

===Netherlands===
It was reported that ] have set up an Internet Brigade to fight cybercrime. Among its planned actions are to infiltrate internet newsgroups and discussion forums for intelligence gathering, to make pseudo-purchase and to provide services.<ref>, by Jelle van Buure, ], ], ]</ref>.

==Internet brigades in Misplaced Pages?==
A number of publications suggested that ] may have infiltrated Misplaced Pages to remove undesirable information <ref> , by Ludwig De Braeckeleer, ], 2007-07-26. </ref> The design and application of ] technology proved such suspicions to be well founded, although it remains unknown how many agents from around the world operate in Misplaced Pages <ref> by ]</ref>
<ref>, by Rhys Blakely, ], August 16, 2007 </ref>
<ref> By Jonathan Fildes, ] </ref>
<ref>, by ]</ref>
<ref> By Paul Willis</ref>


==References== ==References==
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==See also== ==See also==
*] *]
*] *]
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]

==External links==
The original publication:
* Translation to English: . By ], ], and ].

Discussions of existence of web-brigades in RuNet:
*Russophone LiveJournal community
* at Nnov.Ru (in Russian)
* with ] at Moscow-based radio channel ]. (in Russian)


]
] ]
] ]
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Revision as of 22:05, 17 October 2008

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 "web brigades" exist along with other organized teams of information fighters that may push private political agendas, be involved in astroturfing, or participate in election campaigns.

Web 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 for extreme 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.

The activity of Internet teams appeared in 1999 and were organized by the Russian state security service, according to Polyanskaya. 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.

Views

According to Polyanskaya and her colleagues, the behavior of people from the web 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.

Tactics

These brigades reportedly use a number of common tactics.

  • Frequent changes of pseudonyms.
  • Round-the-clock presence on forums. At least one of the uniform members of the team can be found online at all times, always ready to repulse any “attack” by a liberal.
  • Intentional diversion of pointed discussions. For instance, the brigade may claim that Pol Pot never had any connection with Communism or that not a single person was killed in Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 by Soviet tanks.
  • Individual work on opponents. "As soon as an opposition-minded liberal arrives on a forum, expressing a position that makes them a clear "ideological enemy”, he is immediately cornered and subjected to “active measures” by the unified web-brigade. Without provocation, the opponent is piled on with abuse or vicious “arguments” of the sort that the average person cannot adequately react to. As a result, the liberal either answers sharply, causing a scandal and getting himself labeled a “boor” by the rest of the brigade, or else he starts to make arguments against the obvious absurdities, to which his opponents pay no attention, but simply ridicule him and put forth other similar arguments."
  • Making personally offensive comments. Tendency to accuse their opponents of being insane during arguments.
  • Remarkable ability to reveal personal information about their opponents and their quotes from old postings, sometimes more than a year old.
  • Teamwork. "They unwaveringly support each other in discussions, ask each other leading questions, put fine points on each other’s answers, and even pretend not to know each other. If an opponent starts to be hounded, this hounding invariably becomes a team effort, involving all of the three to twenty nicknames that invariably are present on any political forum 24 hours a day."
  • Appealing to the Administration. The members of teams often "write mass collective complaints about their opponents to the editors, site administrators, or the electronic “complaints book”, demanding that one or another posting or whole discussion thread they don’t like be removed, or calling for the banning of individuals they find problematic."
  • Destruction of inconvenient forums. For example, on the site of the Moscow News, all critics of Putin and the FSB "were suddenly and without any explanation banned from all discussions, despite their having broken none of the site’s rules of conduct. All the postings of this group of readers, going back a year and a half, were erased by the site administrator."

Criticism

Alexander Yusupovskiy, head of the analytical department of the Federation Council of Russia (Russian Parliament) asserted that web brigades are a conspiracy theory. Yusupovskiy's points included:

  • There is difference between "dislike of hegemonic policy of the United States" at Russian forums and "quite friendly attitude towards usual Americans". Aggression and xenophobia doesn't characterize one side but is a common place of polemics, well met not only among Russian patriots, but among Russian emigrants from US, Israel, or other countries as well.
  • Change of attitude of virtual masses in 1998-1999 could be caused by Russian financial collapse which "crowned liberal decade", rather than "mysterious bad guys".
  • Authors exclude from their interpretation of events all other hypotheses, such as internet activity of a group of some "skinheads", nazbols; or hackers able to get IP addresses of their opponents.
  • Officeers of GRU or FSB have more topical problems, than "comparing virtual penises" with liberals and emigrants.Yusupovskiy 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".

Support

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

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"

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."

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".

Outside Russia

Russian brigades in the Polish Internet

Russian "Internet brigades" reportedly 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 (like those supporting Belarusian opposition), 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.

Netherlands

It was reported that Dutch police have set up an Internet Brigade to fight cybercrime. Among its planned actions are to infiltrate internet newsgroups and discussion forums for intelligence gathering, to make pseudo-purchase and to provide services..

Internet brigades in Misplaced Pages?

A number of publications suggested that intelligence agents may have infiltrated Misplaced Pages to remove undesirable information The design and application of WikiScanner technology proved such suspicions to be well founded, although it remains unknown how many agents from around the world operate in Misplaced Pages

References

  1. ^ China's secret Internet police target critics with web of propaganda, by Jonathan Watts in Beijing, June 14, 2005, Guardian Unlimited
  2. ^ Commissars of the Internet. The FSB at the Computer by Anna Polyanskaya, Andrei Krivov, and Ivan Lomko, Vestnik online, April 30, 2003 (English translation)
  3. ^ Template:Ru icon Eye for an eye by Grigory Svirsky and Vladimur Bagryansky, publication of the Russian Center for Extreme Journalism
  4. Internet as a field of information war against Armenia, by Samvel Martirosyan, 18 October, 2006,
  5. George Monbiot, "The Fake Persuaders. Corporations are inventing people to rubbish their opponents on the Internet," The Guardian (UK) (posted by Norfolk Genetic Information Network), May 14, 2002,
  6. Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, "For Activist Constituents, Click Here," The Washington Post, September 19, 2005.
  7. Articles by Anna Polyanskaya, MAOF publishing group
  8. Template:Ru icon "They are killing Galina Starovoitova for the second time", by Anna Polyanskaya
  9. ^ Conspiracy theory, by Alexander Yusupovskiy, Russian Journal, 25 April, 2003
  10. State control over the internet, a talk show by Yevgenia Albats at the Echo of Moscow, January 22, 2006; interview with Andrei Soldatov and others
  11. Paul Goble Kremlin’s ‘Agents of Influence’ Said Tilting Internet Forums against the West
  12. Big groups in Russian society: analysis of prospects of organization of collective actions., by RIO-Center. (in Russian)
  13. Template:Ru icon Interview with Roman Sadykhov, grani.ru, 3 April, 2007
  14. ^ Military wing of Kremlin (Russian), The New Times, 19 March, 2007
  15. " Grigory Svirsky Anastasya. A story on-line (Full text in Russian)
  16. Operation "Disinformation" - The Russian Foreign Office vs "Tygodnik Powszechny", Tygodnik Powszechny, 13/2005
  17. Internet Brigade gets fit for fighting Cyber Crime, by Jelle van Buure, August 26, 2001, Heise Online
  18. Misplaced Pages and the Intelligence Services, by Ludwig De Braeckeleer, OhmyNews, 2007-07-26.
  19. CIA, FBI computers used for Misplaced Pages edits by Reuters
  20. Wal-Mart, CIA, ExxonMobil Changed Misplaced Pages Entries, by Rhys Blakely, The Times, August 16, 2007
  21. Misplaced Pages 'shows CIA page edits' By Jonathan Fildes, BBC News
  22. See Who's Editing Misplaced Pages - Diebold, the CIA, a Campaign, by Wired
  23. CIA and Labour Party 'edit' Misplaced Pages entries By Paul Willis

See also

External links

The original publication:

Discussions of existence of web-brigades in RuNet:

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