LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media by P.W. Singer and Emerson T. Brooking. LikeWar explores how social media has certainly forever changed war and politics. LikeWar was named an Amazon and Foreign Affairs book of the year and “new and notable” by the New York Times.
Peter Warren Singer is Strategist at New America, a Professor of Practice at Arizona State University, and Founder & Managing Partner at Useful Fiction LLC. He previously was Director of the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence at the Brookings Institution.
He has consulted for the US Military, Defense Intelligence Agency, and FBI, as well as advised a range of entertainment programs, including for Warner Brothers, Dreamworks, Universal, HBO, Discovery, History Channel, and the video game series Call of Duty. Peter has previously Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry, Children at War, Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century, and finally Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know and LikeWar.
Accordingly, Emerson is an analyst of national security policy and a Research Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. In addition, he has served as an adviser on information warfare to the National Security Council, Joint Staff, and U.S. intelligence community.
2022 Russia invasion of Ukraine
It is remarkable to read LikeWar at this time of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in March 2022. The introduction of how both propaganda and advertising, including the downstream impact of fake news and misinformation) are now more powerful and more abundant via the lack of identity across social media.
Tracing social media to Chicago gangs
Yet, before rushing out to condem ISIS for using social media to recruit new members, those same lessons can be easily traced back to gangs in Chicago and their use of social media:
The difference in being online, however, is that now seemingly the whole world is witnessing whether you accept the challenge or not. This phenomenon plays out at every level, and not just in killings; 80 percent of the fights that break out in Chicago schools are now instigated online.
pgs. 38-39
Heidi Montag, the Kardashians, and Taylor Swift?
LikeWar certainly nails the parallel marketing campaigns of pop culture (Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag, Kim Kardashian and Taylor Swift) to Russian and terrorist war tactics. However, LikeWar’s research on how finely tuned Montag, Kardashian, and Swift’s messaging plays out on social media is rather stunning.
Russia’s embrace of social media for evil
At the same time, the book really reinforces that Russian assets were ‘everywhere’ in the 2016 US Presidential election. Russia’s cyber armies certainly flooded Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to increase Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) around political hot topics including immigration, racial groups and political parties.
Russia’s ultimate goal was to certainly ensure the election of the weakest President possible. However, Likewar is able to document that the 2016 election was just one in the long digital strategy to manipulate social media to strengthen Russia’s global power. Above all, the timing of my reading with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could not have been at a more amazing moment. Russia’s tactics are leaping off the pages of today’s headlines of war. Astounding reading.
Bellingcat
Bellingcat, a Netherlands-based OSINT investigation group certainly came into prominence documenting Russia’s 2014 artillery attacks against Ukrainian government troops. Their reporting revealed the shelling was in support of pro-Russian separatists. Important lessons from the same Russian military over seven years later. Peter and Emerson certainly provide important insights to Belingcat.
In conclusion, along with An Ugly Truth, LikeWar provides a very honest and real portrait of how social media has been flipped to be used as a weapon against users.