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The Ethics of Countering Digital Propaganda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2018

Corneliu Bjola Open the ORCID record for Corneliu Bjola [Opens in a new window]
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Abstract

How can a state react to being a target of disinformation activities by another state without losing the moral ground that it seeks to protect? This essay argues that the concept of moral authority offers an original framework for addressing this dilemma. As a power resource, moral authority enables an actor to have its arguments treated with priority by others and to build support for its actions, but only as long as its behavior does not deviate from certain moral expectations. To develop moral authority, an actor engaged in combating digital propaganda must cultivate six normative attributes: truthfulness and prudence for demonstrating the nature of the harmful effects of disinformation; accountability, integrity, and effectiveness for establishing the normative standing of the actor to engage in counter-intervention; and responsibility for confirming the proportionality of the response.

Keywords

digital propagandadisinformationethicsmoral authorityhybrid warfare
Type
Roundtable: Alternatives to War
Information
Ethics & International Affairs , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , Fall 2018 , pp. 305 - 315
Copyright
Copyright © Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs 2018 

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References

NOTES

1 Marissa Lang, “Number of Americans Exposed to Russian Propaganda Rises, as Tech Giants Testify,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 1, 2017, www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Facebook-Google-Twitter-say-150-million-12323900.php.

2 Jon Stone, “Russian Disinformation Campaign Has Been ‘Extremely Successful’ in Europe, Warns EU,” Independent, January 17, 2018, www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/russian-fake-news-disinformation-europe-putin-trump-eu-european-parliament-commission-a8164526.html.

3 Adam Hulcoop et al., “Tainted Leaks: Disinformation and Phishing with a Russian Nexus,” Citizen Lab, May 25, 2017, citizenlab.ca/2017/05/tainted-leaks-disinformation-phish/.

4 Anti-Western disinformation campaigns originating from China are much less visible, but this may change in the future, as the German intelligence services recently indicated; see Thomas Escritt and Michael Martina, “German Intelligence Unmasks Alleged Covert Chinese Social Media Profiles,” Reuters, December 10, 2017, www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-security-china/german-intelligence-unmasks-alleged-covert-chinese-social-media-profiles-idUSKBN1E40CA.

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7 The discussion in this article strictly focuses on the use of information for propaganda purposes, not on the methods by which information may be illicitly acquired, which is the field of cyber hacking.

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12 Christopher Walker and Jessica Ludwig, “The Meaning of Sharp Power: How Authoritarian States Project Influence,” Foreign Affairs, November 16, 2017, www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2017-11-16/meaning-sharp-power?cid=int-fls&pgtype=hpg.

13 See, for instance, recent reports on the website of the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, exposing Russia's effort to sow discord online; “Facebook Ads: Social Media Advertisements,” democrats-intelligence.house.gov/facebook-ads/social-media-advertisements.htm.

14 Lizzie Dearden, “Why is the UK Accusing Russia of Launching a Nerve Agent Attack on Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, and What Is the Evidence?” Independent, March 16, 2018, www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/uk-russia-nerve-agent-attack-spy-poisoning-sergei-skripal-salisbury-accusations-evidence-explanation-a8258911.html.

15 European External Action Service, “Questions and Answers About the East Stratcom Task Force,” August 11, 2017, eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage_sv/2116/%20Questions%20and%20Answers%20about%20the%20East%20StratCom%20Task%20Force.

16 U.S. Department of State, “Global Engagement Center,” www.state.gov/r/gec/.

17 Vijai Maheshwari, “Ukraine's Fight against Fake News Goes Global,” Politico, March 15, 2017, www.politico.eu/article/on-the-fake-news-frontline/.

18 StopFake.org, “About Us,” www.stopfake.org/en/about-us/.

19 Anne Sofie Schrøder, “Lithuania Has a Volunteer Army Fighting a War on the Internet,” Euronews, September 28, 2017, www.euronews.com/2017/09/28/lithuania-has-a-volunteer-army-fighting-a-war-on-the-internet.

20 Michael Peel, Mehreen Khan, and Max Seddon, “EU Attack on Pro-Kremlin ‘Fake News’ Takes a Hit,” Financial Times, April 2, 2018, www.ft.com/content/5ec2a204-3406-11e8-ae84-494103e73f7f.

21 Article 19, “Statement on the Right to Communicate,” London, U.K. (February 2003), www.article19.org/data/files/pdfs/publications/right-to-communicate.pdf.

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24 Aleksandra Wróbel, “Europol Claims Successful Crackdown on ISIS Propaganda,” Politico, April 27, 2018, www.politico.eu/article/isis-islamic-state-europe-europol-claims-successful-crackdown-on-propaganda/.

25 For a discussion of the narrow versus wide version of the proportionality principle in just war theory, see McMahan, Jeff, “Proportionality and Necessity in Jus in Bello,” in Lazar, Seth and Frowe, Helen, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Ethics of War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), p. 420Google Scholar.

26 Strawson, Peter F., “Freedom and Resentment,” in Watson, Gary, ed., Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume 48: 1962 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963), pp. 1–25Google Scholar.