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Consider that, during World War II, the Germans were able to pay millions of dollars to minor American celebrities to run pro-Nazi short films in US movie theaters. It sounds silly, but it is actually very small compared to what our enemies can accomplish today through social media.
On Tuesday night, Alexis Wilkins, the girlfriend of FBI Director Kash Patel dropped a surprising thread on X saying that several high-ranking people in the conservative political line have joined a “network of influence connected to other countries” for 22 months attacking her and the Trump administration.
Wilkins aims to show that 2024 online campaigns painting him as an Israeli spy were put together by foreign online accounts like Russia Today. The detailed evidence he provides is confusing to the layman, but it clearly shows the lifeless growth of the conspiracy.
X app on iPhone (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
This same network, he says, is currently working to undermine the Trump administration’s military efforts in Iran by using this inorganic pressure on American social media.
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The FBI declined to comment on Wilkins’ post. But just two hours after it went up, X’s Chief Product Officer Nikita Bier took to the stage to announce that starting Thursday, the company will be revising its monetization, or user fees, to give more weight to “local impressions.”
In this important section of the statement, Bier admits that the reason for this change is to prevent foreign interference in our elections, writing, “While we appreciate everyone’s opinion on American politics, we hope that this will take the attention away from US sports ….”
And boy, have there been a lot of outdoor games lately, which no doubt helped promote this announcement.
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But, at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, X owner Elon Musk sent a message saying that it’s actually not that fast,. His message was in response to an account claiming to be an American living in France who could see his income dwindling over time. Musk said the change would be delayed and reviewed.
This malware attack masquerades as a CAPTCHA intended to distinguish humans from bots (KrebsOnSecurity)
Wherever the goal ends up being, it’s certainly welcome news that the forum is taking seriously the threat of foreign intelligence on American social media.
However, so far, the focus of the reaction to this change proposed by X has been on the back front, celebrating that foreign accounts will be prevented from making money by focusing on US politics.
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That’s a benefit, but it pales in comparison to another consequence of the proposal, which is that foreign adversaries will no longer be able to use bot farms to extract millions of dollars from American content creators who are separatists.
When a Russian bot farm floods an anti-American post with 20,000 impressions and shares, it increases the income of a juicing account, even if the creators themselves have no knowledge and think that the growth is completely natural.
To return to our analogy, imagine that, in 1943, your radio was giving you a continuous broadcast of German propaganda bought by the Nazis every night. The government would have closed it, of course. But online, that option doesn’t really exist.
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At least for now.
At the time, there were barriers and gatekeepers to protect Americans from foreign intelligence operations. Today, they don’t exist at all, and it’s an asymmetric information war.
Hopefully, Musk can find a way to use this localization of monetization to end enemy propaganda, but if he and the industry can’t close this gaping information wound, government may be needed.
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Recently, for example, X changed its platform to show the country of origin of its accounts, but this is easily defeated by external bots through VPNs. Again, good instincts, but no ability to truly cool the field.
Musk is in a tough spot here. He doesn’t want to criticize anyone, but he also doesn’t want X to become a crowded market for foreign-funded anti US propaganda, and these proposed changes to localize profits seem like a good idea.
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Meanwhile, whether the industry can fix this problem on its own, or if more government regulation is needed, the government must investigate what percentage of political social networks are pushed by foreign bots.
This should not be done to punish social media companies, but to punish foreign enemies who are involved in a practical way of fighting our nation through cyberwar.
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President Donald Trump has run on tougher borders to keep immigrants out, tariffs to keep out products that make ours uncompetitive and voter ID to protect elections. Now, he must focus on a strong wall to protect America’s social networks from our enemies.
Simply put, if we can’t protect our information ecosystem, we can’t protect anything.
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