Memetic warfare

The history of information and disinformation campaigns in warfare is long, whether it was shouted taunts or misinformation dropped in leaflet form. The former Soviet Union set up an office for "dezinformatsiya" campaigns in 1923, the term coined by Joseph Stalin to describe false information carefully constructed with the intention to deceive. Since then, memetic warfare has been studied by international militaries with respects to information warfare.

Arguably the first time memetic warfare came to the attention of many, the United States electoral race between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton saw the use of memetic warfare. During the lead up to the election, memes promulgated pro-Trump and anti-Clinton sentiment across various online platforms, with these memes being later considered to have swayed the election in Donald Trump's favor. A lot of these memes were generated on the 4Chan message board /pol/, the politically incorrect section of 4Chan, where users would take these memes and, using a network of fake Twitter and Reddit accounts, push them as far as possible. The sub-reddit, r/The_Donald was found to be especially effective at spreading memes and pushing them to fringe and mainstream web communities.

In 2011, The Defense Advanced Research Projects AgencyDefense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) offered $42 million in grants for research into what it called "social media in strategic communications" with the hope that the government could detect purposeful or deceptive messaging and misinformation and create counter messaging to fight it. Dr. Robert Finkelstein was a recipient of one of these grants, and he investigated how DARPA could weaponize memes. Dr. Finkelstein's study, Military Memetics, centered on the problem of whether memetics could be established as a science with the ability to explain phenomena or that memes were actual components of reality and not just marketing concepts. As a result of his research, Dr. Finkelstein recommended memetic warfare for all public affairs units, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the United States Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command.

At its most basic, meme warfare presents an opportunity for individuals to seize control of the means of media production from corporate interests. It is a viral and open-source medium allowing individuals to compete for attention against advertisers, marketing campaigns, and public relations statements. Perhaps in a gesture to their effectiveness, Vladimir PutinVladimir Putin made it illegal to share memes of Putin as a "gay clown" and China banned Winnie the Pooh after President Xi Jinping was compared to the animated bear in memes.

Memetic warfare has already been adopted by states in different ways, and besides the banning of offensive images by RussiaRussia and China's Presidents. In China, 20,000 to 50,000 people are employed as internet police, to enforce ban's such as the ban on Winnie the Pooh, while an additional quarter million "trolls" are employed to spread pro-Beijing material domestically and abroad. A further 1,200 TikTok channels are run by various Chinese civil authorities which have produced more than 13,000 videos and a combined 4.8 billion views in a domestic attempt to control online narratives.

Memetic warfare has also been used in territorial conflicts, such as those between Hong Kong and China, Gaza and Israel, and IndiaIndia and Pakistan as a form of viral propaganda in an effort to sway both local and international sentiment.

The history of information and disinformation campaigns in warfare is long, whether it was shouted taunts or misinformation dropped in leaflet form. The former Soviet UnionSoviet Union set up an office for "dezinformatsiya" campaigns in 1923, the term coined by Joseph Stalin to describe false information carefully constructed with the intention to deceive. Since then, memetic warfare has been studied by international militaries with respects to information warfare.

Arguably the first time memetic warfare came to the attention of many, the United States electoral race between Donald TrumpDonald Trump and Hilary Clinton saw the use of memetic warfare. During the lead up to the election, memes promulgated pro-Trump and anti-Clinton sentiment across various online platforms, with these memes being later considered to have swayed the election in Donald Trump's favor. A lot of these memes were generated on the 4Chan message board /pol/, the politically incorrect section of 4Chan, where users would take these memes and, using a network of fake Twitter and Reddit accounts, push them as far as possible. The sub-reddit, r/The_Donald was found to be especially effective at spreading memes and pushing them to fringe and mainstream web communities.

In 2017, the European UnionEuropean Union and NATO established the European Centre for Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, which has an understanding of memes as information warfare. Although, the centers remit is more analytical than proactive containing an awareness as defense strategy.

Based on it's largely decentralized and anonymous nature, memetic warfare tends to favor insurgencies and disorder. John Robb, former United States Air ForceUnited States Air Force Pilot involved in special operations, suggested the United States military would always be at a structural disadvantage when it comes to applying memetrics in an effective way. This is because, as John Robb goes on to say, when memetic warfare is effective it yields disruption, and from that disruption a broad manipulation of public sentiment, which is not, in his opinion, in the military's wheelhouse. Jacob Siegel summed up the use of memetic for insurgency campaigns in these words:

Trolling, it might be said, is the social media equivalent of guerrilla warfareguerrilla warfare, and memes are its currency of propaganda. Daesh [ISIS] is conducting memetic warfare. The Kremlin is doing it. It's inexpensive. The capabilities exist.

In 2011, The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPADARPA) offered $42 million in grants for research into what it called "social media in strategic communications" with the hope that the government could detect purposeful or deceptive messaging and misinformation and create counter messaging to fight it. Dr. Robert Finkelstein was a recipient of one of these grants, and he investigated how DARPA could weaponize memes. Dr. Finkelstein's study, Military Memetics, centered on the problem of whether memetics could be established as a science with the ability to explain phenomena or that memes were actual components of reality and not just marketing concepts. As a result of his research, Dr. Finkelstein recommended memetic warfare for all public affairs units, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the United States Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command.

In a NATONATO StratCom brief from 2015, Jeff Giesea described the need for NATO and similar intelligence and defense agencies to develop the capabilities for memetic warfare. In the brief, he considered the capability ISIS had in their recruiting and propaganda efforts through the use of memes on social media platforms. He remarks on the relatively simple capabilities memetic warfare offers, noting three Russian girls were able to entrap (or catfish) ISIS recruiters in early 2015, and went on to remark:

Memetic warfare has already been adopted by states in different ways, and besides the banning of offensive images by Russia and China's Presidents. In China, 20,000 to 50,000 people are employed as internet police, to enforce ban's such as the ban on Winnie the Pooh, while an additional quarter million "trolls" are employed to spread pro-Beijing material domestically and abroad. A further 1,200 TikTokTikTok channels are run by various Chinese civil authorities which have produced more than 13,000 videos and a combined 4.8 billion views in a domestic attempt to control online narratives.

Memetic warfare has also been used in territorial conflicts, such as those between Hong Kong and China, Gaza and IsraelIsrael, and India and Pakistan as a form of viral propaganda in an effort to sway both local and international sentiment.

Arguably the first time memetic warfare came to the attention of many, the United States electoral race between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton saw the use of memetic warfare. During the lead up to the election, memes promulgated pro-Trump and anti-Clinton sentiment across various online platforms, with these memes being later considered to have swayed the election in Donald Trump's favor. A lot of these memes were generated on the 4Chan message board /pol/, the politically incorrect section of 4Chan, where users would take these memes and, using a network of fake Twitter and RedditReddit accounts, push them as far as possible. The sub-reddit, r/The_Donald was found to be especially effective at spreading memes and pushing them to fringe and mainstream web communities.

The United States Army used a social media-focused "Warriors Wanted" campaign, largely a memetic campaign, for recruiting purposes. While the British ArmyBritish Army used a similar campaign, which borrowed century-old recruiting posters to ridicule millennial stereotypes. Despite ridicule, both of these campaigns increased recruitment for each respective military.

The history of information and disinformation campaigns in warfare is long, whether it was shouted taunts or misinformation dropped in leaflet form. The former Soviet Union set up an office for "dezinformatsiya" campaigns in 1923, the term coined by Joseph StalinJoseph Stalin to describe false information carefully constructed with the intention to deceive. Since then, memetic warfare has been studied by international militaries with respects to information warfare.