Countering Russian Social Media Influence
This RAND report frames Russian social media disinformation as a "disinformation chain"—running from Russian leadership through state organs and proxies, into amplification channels like Twitter and Facebook, and finally to American consumers. The strategic intent is not to push a single narrative but to flood the environment with conflicting ones, deepening divisions and eroding trust. Current U.S. countermeasures are fragmented: government, platforms, NGOs, and academics work the problem in parallel with no overarching strategy.
The recommendations: establish norms for state and media behavior on platforms, coordinate executive and legislative branch activity, and stand up a formal information-sharing mechanism between government and the major platforms. Push platforms toward greater transparency on detection and moderation, fund academic work on attribution, prioritize defensive measures over punitive ones, and continuously reassess whether any given response is actually moving the needle against Russian activity.