Description:
A chilling account of Russian information warfare, Putin's Trolls exposes the individuals and organizations behind the Kremlin's coordinated, military-style social media operations against the West.
In this courageous and unflinching book, award-winning journalist Jessikka Aro interweaves her own dramatic story as a target of Russian social media propaganda with accounts from many internationally known critics of the Kremlin, who share their own stories of being targeted by Russia's multifaceted cyber warfare campaigns.
As Aro began to investigate the impact of the Kremlin's troll operations outside of Russia, she learned that private citizens in many other countries were being victimized by Kremlin-designed information campaigns. These actions were frequently conducted through an organized "troll factory" led by Russia's security and intelligence apparatus, using unregulated social media platforms including YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Many of the disinformation campaigns were centered around the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent occupation of the Crimean Peninsula.
Brief description:
Jessikka Aro is an award-winning investigative reporter with Yle, the Finnish Broadcasting Company, specializing in Russia, extremism, and information warfare. Due to her investigations of pro-Kremlin social media trolls and their influence on public debates outside Russia's borders, she became the target of an international propaganda and hate speech campaign. In 2019, the US State Department awarded her the International Women of Courage Award, but the award was mysteriously rescinded by the Trump administration, allegedly due to her social media criticism of President Trump.
Review Quotes:
"Ms. Aro has done the world a huge service by showing us how these tactics work so we can better defend ourselves going forward."
-- "Bill Browder, activist and New York Times bestselling author"