Towards 2024 With the election looming, the Department of Homeland Security has a little-noticed weapon in its fight against disinformation: comic books. Although few people have read it, the series has drawn criticism from members of Congress. Rep. Dan Bishop (R.N.C.) called the cartoon “creepy.” complained Earlier this month, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said the series was just another way for the federal government to “trample on the First Amendment” in its zeal to combat so-called disinformation.
“DC Comics intends to add these taxpayer-funded comic books to its repertoire in the near future,” said Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's annual report on government waste released in December. “No,” it says.
The cartoon reads like a well-intentioned (albeit corny) attempt to address foreign governments' efforts to influence American public opinion, as evidenced by intelligence assessments. But the federal government's fight against foreign disinformation risks positioning the federal government as the arbiter of truth, raising civil liberties concerns. The effectiveness of DHS's comic “Resilience Series” is also not clear.
Lawmakers may have been relieved to learn that few people paid attention to the cartoon.The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is asking users to “share” the “Resilience Series” comics, but when you search for the web page address with link to Less than a dozen times. CISA also created glossy YouTube trailers for her two graphic novels, which only garnered 4,000 views and 6,000 views respectively. It's a far cry from other graphic novel trailers that garner hundreds of thousands of views.
For CISA, disinformation is no laughing matter. “Disinformation is an existential threat to the United States,” declares a webpage detailing CISA's comic book “Resilience Series.”
Ranked third in terms of sales by genre, behind general novels and romance novels, graphic novels are especially popular among young readers. One industry insider points out that Japan uses more paper for comic books than toilet paper. School Library Journal concluded in a graphic novel survey last year that their popularity in school libraries increased by more than 90% year-over-year. The survey also found that nearly 60% of school librarians report opposition to graphic novels from teachers, parents, and others who don't consider them to be “real books.” did.
The cartoon was first published in 2020 in anticipation of the Trump vs. Biden presidential election, but was intended to be an evergreen resource in the fight against disinformation. “Learn the dangers and risks associated with disinformation and misinformation through fictional stories inspired by real-world events in @CISAgov's Resilience Series,” the U.S. Attorney for Nevada said last April. I posted it to his X.
CISA has produced two graphic novels: “Real Fake” and “Bug Bytes.” “Real Fake” tells the story of Rachel O’Sullivan, a “gamer” and “patriot” who infiltrates a troll farm that spreads false stories about the election to American voters. “Bug Bytes” follows Eva Williams, a journalism student who discovers that her malicious cyber campaign spreading conspiracy theories about 5G technology is causing an attack on her 5G tower, and the coronavirus outbreak. We are focusing on disinformation about.
“Comic book geeks, gather around!” CISA said when the comic book was first released. “Let's come together to fight disinformation and misinformation.” CISA's post follows another from the FBI's Washington field office, which promotes graphic novels and talks about the importance of “finding information you can trust.” Quoting post X.
“The Resilience Series products were launched in 2020 and 2021 to raise awareness about foreign influence and disinformation tactics,” a CISA spokesperson told The Intercept, adding that the Resilience Series products Despite being continuously mentioned, this comic series is now defunct.
“The issue is not the panel on African trawl farms (real fake) or a homemade anti-vaxxer (bug bite) may make readers feel anxious — because they don't make them feel anxious enough,” said Russ Castronovo, director of the Humanities Center and professor of American studies and English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He writes for Public Books magazine. “Or, more precisely, these comics may be judged as aesthetic failures because they border on propaganda, leaving little room for the vulnerability inherent in the act of reading. In a graphic fiction commissioned by U.S. Cybersecurity, we learn that interference is “especially frightening in an election year,” while reading itself provides information (rather than disinformation), answers questions, and questions. has been resolved. ”
Thomas Gorkin, writing in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said, “The Resilience series… evokes a kind of patriotism typical of government publications that mimics the very threat being addressed.''
All of this raises the question of what role the Department of Homeland Security should play in determining “media literacy,” as the series' webpage states.
“Real Fake” and “Bug Bytes” are both co-written by Clint Watts, a former FBI special agent and MSNBC contributor who works at Microsoft's Threat Analysis Center, and Clint Watts, a London-based CEO and education technology entrepreneur. Written by one Farid Haq. He is based at Early Stage Studios and was previously CEO of StartUp Britain, a campaign launched by then British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Mr. Watts writes and speaks about Russian influence campaigns, has testified before Congress on the issue, and is affiliated with numerous think tanks, including the Alliance for Securing Democracies, the German Marshall Fund, and the Foreign Policy Institute. . His own clearly knowledgeable writings, which sometimes lean toward hyperbole, are a stark reminder that even experts in disinformation are far from infallible.
“For the past three years, Russia has mounted and executed one of the most effective and efficient influence campaigns in the history of the world,” Watts said in testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2017. Meanwhile, Russian propaganda about the initial invasion of Ukraine and Crimea was indisputable. A detailed study by the Pentagon-backed RAND Corporation found that the policies adopted for the 2016 U.S. presidential election were “not well-organized and particularly poorly funded.” The think tank later concluded that “the impact of Russia's efforts in the West is uncertain.”
According to an interview with Forbes magazine, co-author Haq became involved with the Resilience series after a chance meeting at a bookstore with actor Mel Brooks' son Max Brooks. He would later join the early stage advisory board and introduce Haq to his American network. Watts was among them.
“There is a real need now for schools and public institutions to educate young people about how much fake news exists in all forms of media,” Haq told Forbes.
As The Intercept previously reported, countering disinformation has become a cottage industry in the federal government, with offices and programs now dedicated to exposing foreign influence. CISA's Resilience Series webpage accepts questions by email for the Foreign Influence Task Force (not to be confused with the FBI's own initiative, the Foreign Influence Task Force, or the intelligence community's Center for Foreign Influences). In 2021, the CISA Task Force was replaced by the Misinformation, Disinformation and Fraud Team, according to the government audit, and CISA said Intercept was folded into what is now called the Election Security and Resilience Division. (According to CISA, fraudulent information is information that is factual but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.)
The disparate spread of various counterdisinformation organizations led the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general to conclude that: It's what appears on social media. ”
CISA's mission initially focused on traditional cyber and critical infrastructure security, but evolved in the wake of the 2016 election. In the waning years of the Obama administration, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson formally designated election systems as part of critical infrastructure. CISA has since expanded its focus to fighting disinformation, arguing that human thought constitutes infrastructure.
“Some may argue that we are in the business of critical infrastructure, but the most critical infrastructure is cognitive infrastructure, so we build resilience against misinformation and disinformation. “I think it's very important that we do that,” CISA Director Jen Easterly said in 2021.
To pursue that cognitive infrastructure, CISA launched the Resilience Series, looking to a medium that appeals to a general audience.
“Rather than being seen as preaching, we have to find new ways to engage with people through mediums that leverage soft power and creative messaging,” Haq said in an interview with Forbes. .
