"Bridges qualitative and quantitative work in a way that formalizes constructs and sets course for moving beyond single case narrative reporting." —James A. Sheppard, AcriNovum

What happens when voices in your social media feed are not real people, but instead come from a coordinated, and dangerous, production line? How does a troll farm manufacture credibility, infiltrate communities, and persuade citizens to amplify messages designed to divide them? And how are these methods mutating as artificial intelligence makes false personas cheaper, faster, and harder to detect?

Ori Swed and Bryan Giemza answer these questions by reverse engineering Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA). Using open data, network and content analysis, and case studies, they identify the specialized roles that kept the IRA operation running: fake news producers, agenda setters, hashtag gamers, supporters, and fearmongers. The result is a blueprint of disinformation, showing how narratives are created, adapted, circulated, and made to look organic. Russia’s Disinformation Machine transforms an infamous political episode into an intelligible system, illuminating the organizational logic behind malign influence campaigns and emerging AI-enhanced threats.

CONTENTS: Information in the Digital World.Russia's Interference in a US Election Cycle.The Internet Research Agency.Setting Up the Disinformation Machine.Inside the Machine: The Network's Actors.Inside the Machine: The Network's Actions.The Machine at Work: Case Studies.The Disinformation Machine Blueprint.The Future of Info Ops.