Russians seize on border battle to spread disinformation
Operatives promote idea of civil war, state secession
WASHINGTON — Russian disinformation operatives have apparently found a rich vein to tap in their long-running effort to foment U.S. political divisions: the escalating battle between Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and President Joe Biden over who is in charge of the southern border.
American technology magazine Wired reported this week that it had obtained exclusive access to data from two disinformation research groups showing a coordinated Russian effort to promote the idea that the United States is heading toward civil war.
Russian government officials and state-run media outlets have been publicly elevating that narrative by citing the intense U.S. domestic political battles over the border and immigration enforcement.
Russia has long tried to manipulate public opinion in countries around the world.
Its goal is not necessarily to sway people to a certain point of view, but rather to exploit and aggravate divisions, said Samuel Woolley, program director of the University of Texas at Austin’s propaganda research lab.
“They want Americans to continue disagreeing, to continue being so angry with each other, to continue being so distrustful of institutions, that they can’t get anything done,” said Woolley, a faculty member at UT’S School of Journalism and Media. “To be very frank, by many assessments, they seem to be having success.”
That’s not to suggest intense debates over border and immigration policy are all the result of foreign meddling. Americans have plenty of sincere, deeply rooted disagreements and don’t necessarily need the influence of Russian bots to throw rhetorical elbows online.
The depth of those political divisions is reflected in the jurisdictional fights between Abbott and the Biden administration.
Abbott and many Republicans say the state has been forced to step up with its Operation Lone Star because Biden has abandoned the federal gov
ernment’s responsibility to secure the border, with record-setting numbers of migrants entering the country.
Democrats say Republicans are more interested in scoring political points than solving the problem.
Most Senate Republicans, including both from Texas — Ted Cruz and John Cornyn — blocked a proposed bipartisan compromise on the border this week, saying it was woefully inadequate.
But the Russian operations are trying to put those policy disputes on steroids by playing up the idea of Texas breaking away from the rest of the country or kicking off a new civil war, Woolley said.
“Of course there’s already a controversy at the border and there’s things going on,” Woolley said. “But I think what you see Russia doing is stoking the fire by bringing up things related to Texas secession and the idea that America is falling apart.”
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president and prime minister, posted on X last month that ” Establishing a People’s Republic of Texas is getting more and more real.” Abbott has stopped caring about what the White
House and “its senile old man Biden think” as Texas puts up “barbed wire fences,” Medvedev said.
He characterized U.S. power as on the decline and invoked the prospect of another civil war.
“America can face an unsolvable constitutional crisis,” Medvedev said.
Other Russian leaders also have highlighted the dispute,
Wired reported, including an offer to recognize Texas if it secedes. Russian state-run media outlets have amplified the idea.
Russian trolls have sought for years to drive divisions among Americans by focusing on immigration and other hot-button issues, such as gun violence and police brutality.
A Senate Intelligence Committee report recounted a 2016 Russia effort to orchestrate a clash in Houston between Muslims and anti-muslim demonstrators.
Woolley said major social media platforms tried to crack down on foreign disinformation campaigns but have recently scaled back those efforts, opening the door for more intense meddling.
He also noted the growing availability of sophisticated technology around Ai-generated content.
A manipulated video of an Abbott appearance on Fox News recently surfaced on social media. The video had been altered so some of his comments on border policy were replaced with Abbott saying Biden could learn from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The point of disinformation campaigns is often to manipulate social media algorithms to get false content trending or recommended to users, Woolley said. The fake content then is spread by more and more regular users, granting it more perceived authenticity.
“Effectively, what we see happening is the social media companies kind of laundering this poor-quality, sensational, conspiratorial content and then repackaging it and giving it to people as if it’s somehow legitimate,” Woolley said.
He urged people to be cautious of information that appears to be over-the-top “rage farming” online. And he said users are likely to see more disinformation as political tensions rise and the November election approaches.
“We’re going to see more and more of this over the next six to eight months, and it’s just going to get worse,” Woolley said.