T0009 "Create fake experts"

Tactic stage: TA16

Summary: Stories planted or promoted in computational propaganda operations often make use of experts fabricated from whole cloth, sometimes specifically for the story itself.

Relationships

Has counters:

C00008 Create shared fact-checking database

C00011 Media literacy. Games to identify fake news

C00012 Platform regulation

C00014 Real-time updates to fact-checking database

C00016 Censorship

C00034 Create more friction at account creation

C00040 third party verification for people

C00097 Require use of verified identities to contribute to poll or comment

C00099 Strengthen verification methods

C00107 Content moderation

C00133 Deplatform Account*

C00176 Improve Coordination amongst stakeholders: public and private

C00189 Ensure that platforms are taking down flagged accounts

C00197 remove suspicious accounts

Detection methods include:

F00015 Detect anomalies in membership growth patterns

F00018 Follow the money

F00051 Challenge expertise

F00058 Deplatform (cancel culture)

Datasets

Examples include:

E000011 Jade Helm fake experts: For example, in the Jade Helm conspiracy theory promoted by SVR in 2015, a pair of experts--one of them naming himself a “Military Intelligence Analyst / Russian Regional CME” and the other a “Geopolitical Strategist, Journalist & Author”--pushed the story heavily on LinkedIn.

Seen in incidents:

I00044 as Promote fake “experts” with impressive (and scary) titles: