This is what state-sponsored propaganda looks like on Tumblr
Yeah, I got one of Tumblr’s you-may-have-unwittingly-interacted-with-propaganda-blogs emails too. And like everyone else, I kind of shrugged because really, what am I supposed to do about that now? I have search disabled on my blog, and my tags are a mess; there’s no way I could go through and actually find any of the propaganda I may have inadvertently boosted over the seven years I’ve been on this site.
But out of curiosity I looked over Tumblr’s list of IRA-linked blogs. And one username stood out to me. I recognised it because for several months last year it had been showing up constantly in my notifications after I reblogged one of their posts with a response.
That username was black-to-the-bones, and this is the post I reblogged from them:
When I first saw the post by black-to-the-bones, I wanted to know more about these women. I dug up the original Tweet, ran a reverse Google image search and… well, as you can see from my reblog, there turned out to be quite a lot of information about them on the internet, which I spent the next hour or two collating into my post.
Now, don’t get me wrong here: I am one hundred percent aware that history regularly erases the contributions of women, and especially women of colour. But as you can see from my reply, in this particular case the history of these three women absolutely is not “hidden from us”. The person attempting to hide these women’s history was black-to-the-bones themself.
The original post – which we now know was posted by a state-sponsored propaganda blog – took a legitimate issue, but misrepresented facts to stir up emotion about that issue. The issue was perfectly tailored to resonate with Tumblr’s culture of social justice, and it worked. The vast majority of reblogs of the original post do not include any correction or further information.
Again, don’t get me wrong: anger is important. It’s a necessary part of social justice. But we have clear evidence that bad-faith actors are intentionally fomenting false anger to keep us reacting emotionally rather than thinking rationally. And they are smart about it. They will mix in their attempts to divide and enrage us with innocuous cute videos to gain followers, and legitimate posts about issues. So that when they do post actual misinformation, it slips under our radar.
When propaganda blogs do something like try to smear a Jewish woman as a white supremacist, it’s obvious who their target is, and what their goal is. But I wanted to highlight the black-to-the-bones post above because it’s a subtler, more insidious kind of propaganda. It’s part of a continuum of tactics designed to keep up a constant background noise of outrage.
Because while anger is important, constant anger makes it harder for us to empathise with each other. It makes it harder for us to be constructive, rather than destructive. And ultimately, it just exhausts us and leaves us too apathetic to care.
So getting back to my original question: What are we supposed to do about that now?
Fact. Check. Everything.
Your racist grandparents aren’t the only ones being targeted by fake news. We are being targeted with posts that are specifically designed to appeal to Tumblr’s social justice culture. So if you see a post about an issue that makes you angry, stop before you reblog. Check the source. Google the details. Make sure your anger about legitimate issues isn’t being exploited by malicious actors.
Propaganda like this relies on us reacting to outrage before we stop to think. Be smarter than that. Don’t let yourself be manipulated.
This is a good explanation of exactly what’s going on with with the Russian misinformation campaign on tumblr, and how it works. (Is it too far to call them agents provocateur, or has that got a more specific meaning that I’m not aware of?) It’s subtler than you might think.
A lot of us are suspicious with things we disagree with, but tend to believe things that fit our view of the world and the narrative we want to believe (regardless of how valid that narrative is). As OP said we need to train ourselves to fact check everything. Is there a link? Click it. Is there no link? Do a quick Google search for anything sensational.
It’s easy for us to laugh at the morons who fall for obviously fake stories like PIzzagate, but we (myself included) are less prone to suspect things like the post OP talks about. This goes for tumblr, other sites, and real world events. Check everything you can. Source things if you can. At the very least, take a moment to ask “does this sound reasonable?”.
For example: A relative of mine–who is afraid of universal healthcare, which I ferociously appreciate here in Japan–once tried to tell me a story about “a gal” (lack of specific names is the first red flag) who lived in Canada and ‘had to pull out her own tooth because of their healthcare system’. It only took a few minutes of skepticism to break down her story. Who was this woman? She didn’t know. When and where did this happen? She didn’t know. Was there an original article/interview/etc. about this? She didn’t think so. Had she heard of other such cases (but actually verified) literally EVER happening in Canada? She admitted no. Then might the story not actually be true or–at least–not totally accurate??
This blew her mind.
We currently live in a climate of aggressive misinformation and surgical division. Fight it with all the love and information you can muster.
