(LONG) THREAD. Fellow academics: Please take the time to read this incredible (and brave!) @chronicle piece by @LDBurnett about her experience with @campusreform. I'll break down how CR's tactics work as an example of domestic information warfare: https://www.chronicle.com/article/right-wing-trolls-attacked-me-my-administration-buckled?cid=gen_sign_in&cid2=gen_login_refresh

2. First, what is Campus Reform? It's a right-wing propaganda outlet which purports to champion free speech on college campuses. How do they do this? Well, they target professors whose views they disagree with and try to get them fired. (Because of course)

3. Campus Reform is a project of The Leadership Institute, which is funded by the Koch donor network. It's essentially, in intelligence terms, a PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT OPERATION designed to delegitimize the academy. More here https://www.aaup.org/sites/default/files/kamola.pdf

4. The longer term goal is to change the course of national conversation to support plutocratic economic policies, a goal for which (in their view) higher ed stands in the way. They are increasingly successful, as this Pew Research Study shows https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2017/07/10/sharp-partisan-divisions-in-views-of-national-institutions/

5. So what are their tactics? Typically, it involves focusing the Eye of Sauron on a particular faculty member's tweets or comments, stripping them of context and analysis, and making them into a "story." Here's an example of their cutting-edge "journalism" https://twitter.com/ashleyecarnahan/status/1316581557331587072?s=20

6. This "story" then becomes the basis for a number of other outlets in the right-wing media ecosystem to pick it up (a.k.a., "legitimizing propaganda"), thereby generating moral outrage among its conservative readership demographic (usually within hours)

7. In a coordinated effort, the outlets then all descend like piranhas on both the faculty member and institution (through both phone and email), demanding comment and explanation. Which brings me to the second phase of the info op: REFLEXIVE CONTROL.

8. Reflexive control is basically a disinformation technique whereby you feed certain assumptions to your adversary, which they adopt without question, and then will react on the basis of those assumptions.

9. So let's take the "scandal" created by @LDBurnett. Apparently, she tweeted, during the VP debate when Pence wouldn't let Harris get a word in edgewise, that Pence needed "to shut his demon mouth." Just as a reality check, here is the real world's reaction to this tweet

10. However, within hours of this tweet being a "story" on Campus Reform, it gets picked up by Fox News, with outlets reaching out to her for "comment." The assumptions being presented are: 1) this is newsworthy; 2) it's wrong/inappropriate; 3) she MUST defend/explain herself

11. At the same time, administrators at the institution receive this deluge of activity, presented with the following assumptions: 1) your faculty member just said something CRAZY; 2) you MUST DO SOMETHING

12. Note that also at this time, private trolls are sending harassing (often crude, misogynistic, racist) emails/phone calls to both the professor/institution. This serves to disorient the target, make them feel a sense of panic and urgency, and the need to FIX THIS IMMEDIATELY

13. To @LDBurnett's great credit, she did the *exact* right thing. She stayed calm, informed the president of @collincollege that she was a target of CR, what to expect, and advising that a nonresponse would likely neutralize the op (not in those words) and they would move on

14. Unfortunately, the @collincollege president did not heed her advice. Instead, he sent a CAMPUS-WIDE email reprimanding her. In doing so, he furthered the objectives of the op, namely paint higher ed as a crazy place with commie hippie profs running amok. So, Pres. Matkin:

15. Undeterred, @LDBurnett did *another* right thing: She hit "reply all" and pushed back on the narrative. Many of her colleagues came to her defense. But then, in a super Trumpy move, the president of the college SHUT DOWN THE REPLY ALL FUNCTION to prevent a community convo

16. Which brings me to the last feature of information warfare: ASYMMETRY. CR is able to quickly mobilize its "army" of so-called reporters and trolls to saturate the information space (the "battlefield) and overwhelm its adversary. The goal is to isolate, intimidate and silence

17. Shutting down a common conversation, and the ability to form an organized response (or even consensus) furthers this asymmetry, offering the advantage to the aggressor and further leaving the target isolated and alone. Super bad idea jeans.

18. So if you are targeted, what do you do? My advice: Do NOT respond to requests for comment. Although your impulse will be to defend yourself, remember that this is not a legit journalistic enterprise to find facts and objectively report. It's to get you fired (or in trouble)

19. Knowing that, anything you do/say will just be used as more fodder to further their narrative and keep the story "alive." Think in law enforcement terms: You are a "suspect," they know you are "guilty," and they want to use the pretextual "interview" to gather more "evidence"

20. More than that, understand that *this is a broader phenomenon* not about YOU. Awareness/exposure neutralizes information warfare, much like how we aren't falling for Rudy's "Hunter's hard drive" story this time around, like we did with "Hillary's emails." The jig is up

21. The other thing that neutralizes information warfare is to level the asymmetry, if possible. SHARING information and stories, recognizing patterns, creating alliances with orgs (and educating your institution) is key. This is why @LDBurnett's piece is so important (brava!)

22. I hope to write up this thread into an article/op-ed for a larger audience, but I was inspired by the Chronicle piece, having been through the spin cycle two or three times already (I was on the home page of Infowars last week! ) But hope this is helpful in the meantime.

P.S. I meant to add: Do not respond to trolls, esp. emails, as satisfying as it might feel (I've been there). Not worth your time. BUT, I DO recommend printing them out, getting together with friends with similar experiences, and doing dramatic readings of the emails over wine