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The U.S. has been rocked over the last two years by claims that the Russian government directly attempted to meddle in the 2016 presidential election.

Social media companies initially claimed such efforts must have been limited in scope. But this notion was refuted by the recent indictment of 13 Russian nationals for their actions during the election.

The indictment, brought by special counsel Robert Mueller, revealed a highly organized and sophisticated effort to drive a wedge between Americans through social media.

The recent revelations about Cambridge Analyticas potentially illegal harvest of Facebook user information raise further questions about how much American citizens have been manipulated via social media.

Such efforts may be relatively new in the U.S. But they are part of a much larger global push by the Kremlin to affect politics across the European Union and exploit citizens through the internet.

I study computer hacking, malware and the role of the internet in fraud and deception by various actors. And I believe that the Europeans have something to teach the United States about how to protect citizens subject to Russian internet propaganda.

The Russians have keenly recognized that they could subvert the modern dependence on social media as a seemingly trustworthy platform for news and information. They have used Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and websites as tools to launch overt and covert information warfare campaigns against various nations.

The internet is a critical tool for spreading false information or disinformation in the parlance of information warfare to either manipulate or demoralize a nation and its people. Since most people now find news stories online, whether through traditional news media or on social media, governments can engage in campaigns of disinformation on the internet.

The Internet Research Agency is one of the primary arms of the Russian governments propaganda efforts. It operates a troll factory out of St. Petersburg where individuals create and spread false information. The false information is spread through social media posts, comments in news stories and videos posted on traditional journalistic outlets. Its also spread via websites the trolls create.

The Internet Research Agency also operates covertly through false online profiles. In some cases, they create entirely false profiles. In others, they have stolen identities in an attempt to seem like a citizen of a specific place and a true believer in a specific ideology.

These efforts seek to turn average people against their governments or against their fellow citizens and sow mistrust and discontent.

The European Union has been targeted with propaganda efforts by the Internet Research Agency for the last decade, as part of a campaign to destabilize European politics and increase Russian power within the region.

There have been repeated attempts to influence the views of Finnish and German voters. The Internet Research Agency has also attempted to whitewash and legitimize the Russian invasion of the Ukraine.

The current campaign being waged against the U.S. is serious. I believe it merits a response from a trusted source.

Though there are fact-checking websites in the U.S. like Snopes, a threat of this magnitude requires more than just citizen-run or private organization-operated programs.

A government effort to combat fake news would provide citizens with information about the scope of information warfare. It would also create a clearinghouse about fake news that can inform not only the public, but also government agencies and policy-makers. There is no current effort of this sort in the United States.

The EU created a specialized task force in March 2015 to identify the Russian campaigns strategies and expose them to the public. The East StratCom Task Force was formed by the European Council to provide information to the European Union and its member states on the extent of Russian disinformation campaigns.

The task force publishes two weekly newsletters. The Disinformation Review is published every Tuesday to show the latest examples and trends in Russian trolling. Theres also a Disinformation Review Facebook page and Twitter account that has 35,000 followers.

The Disinformation Digest is released every Friday. It features what the pro-government media outlets in Russia are saying and compares that to independent media voices. It also presents trends in Russian social media feeds.

In addition, the task force publishes analyses and reports about specific stories that have begun to trend on social media. Those reports appear as close as possible to the time the stories appear. They help illustrate how hashtagging and trending stories may be falsified and why they can both directly and indirectly benefit the Kremlin.

For instance, they have published analyses of the manipulation of trending stories on the Salisbury poisoning. Thats the incident in which a former Russian spy who was living in England, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia, were poisoned by a nerve agent. British Prime Minister Theresa May has accused the Russians of the attack. The task force highlighted Russian disinformation about the incident, including stories that claimed that the West (was) using it to destroy Russias reputation as a peacemaker.

Lastly, they provide briefings to law enforcement agencies across the EU, as well as lawmakers and the general public. This helps to make the role of Russian propaganda a real, tangible problem that can be understood by anyone.

In fact, the U.S. government is already taking steps abroad to combat Russian messaging via a new service operating via Polygraph.info.

The site acts as a counterpart to the European task force, though it is not currently directed to U.S. audiences. Instead it operates via the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, which serves international audiences. It seems plausible that the U.S. government could adapt this tool to directly service U.S. citizens, which could be a tremendous step forward to counter Russian messaging.

The suggestion that the U.S. engage in efforts to formally counter disinformation campaigns from Russia and elsewhere was recently made in a report by Brookings Institution scholar Alina Polyakova and former State Department official Daniel Fried.

It may seem odd to propose that the government run its own campaign to clarify what is real and fake online. But I believe it is necessary in an era where individuals may not be able to fully separate fact from fiction, and legitimate news sources from the disreputable. An effort like this is not government censorship of the news or even of fake news. It is government fighting false information by providing context, analysis and facts.

These EU newsletters provide a way to fact-check stories initially released by social media accounts with no apparent journalistic credentials. Further, their reporting communicates practical insights as to how propaganda campaign messaging fits into broader stories being pushed by the Kremlin that in some way benefit Russia.

Creating similar resources within a government organization like the Department of Homeland Security could go a long way to helping the general public separate truth from reality and become more informed of the real threat America faces from the insidious and manipulative practices of information warfare.

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Busting Russia's fake news the European Union way

A Google logo at Paris-based gadget show Vivatech in June 2017.Photo: AP

Facebook may be having a very bad week stateside and in the UK over its Cambridge Analytica data scandal, but over in the continental European Union officials are maintaining that fellow tech giant Google may ultimately need to be broken up, lest it swallow the internet whole.

Per the Telegraph, the EUs competition commissioner Margrethe Vestagerwho led the charge to fine Google a record $2.7 billion last year for allegedly manipulating online shopping marketsin a decision that is still being appealedtold them in an interview that EU officials still harbor grave suspicions about the search giant. She said that they are still considering whether breaking Google up on anti-trust grounds is the only option to prevent it from becoming too large to challenge without disrupting the economy.

I think it important to keep that question open and on the agenda, Vestager said. We are not there yet but it is important to keep an awakened eye.

Vestager also seemed concerned that Google is still abusing its market position, which is nearly 92 percent of the entire search industry in the EU, to bully competitors out of business despite the fine. In recent interviews, shes said EU officials will be carefully monitoring its compliance reports and that other related investigations into the Play Store and its AdSense business are ongoing. The companys rivals have also accused Google of failing to make legally mandated changes following the 2017 fine.

There is no ban on success in Europe, Vestager told the Telegraph. You get to be dominant and you get a special responsibility that you dont destroy the already weakened competition... We have proven their dominance in search and we have found they have misused this dominance to promote themselves and diminish competitors.

European regulators have long been willing to take much more dramatic antitrust action against dominant companies than their US counterparts, who have largely let tech giants proceed without serious legal challenge.

As Reuters noted, Vestager said last year further cases against Google remained likely, and the European Commission is drafting regulation that would require e-commerce sites, app stores and search engines to be more transparent in how they rank search results and why they delist some services. New EU proposals would also require tech companies to pay a three percent tax on turnover if they make money from user data or digital advertising in a country, per the Guardian, a challenge to the model today, where tech giants typically race to install headquarters in countries where they will be taxed the least.

Vestager told the Telegraph she was not targeting tech companies specifically, adding I think the motives for illegal behaviour are the same for any kind of company. Money, fear, power these motives have been the same across centuries.

[The Telegraph]

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European Union Competition Watchdog Renews Threats to ...

Goals and values of the EUGoals

The goals of the European Union are:

The EU values are common to the member countries in a society in which inclusion, tolerance, justice, solidarity and non-discrimination prevail. These values are an integral part of our European way of life:

These goals and values form the basis of the EU and are laid out in the Lisbon Treaty and the EU Charter of fundamental rights.

In 2012, the EU was awarded theNobel Peace Prizefor advancing the causes of peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.

The European Union is a unique economic and political union between 28European countries that together cover much of the continent.

The predecessor of the EU was created in the aftermath of the Second World War. The first steps were to foster economic cooperation: the idea being that countries that trade with one another become economically interdependent and so more likely to avoid conflict.

The result was the European Economic Community (EEC), created in 1958, and initially increasing economic cooperation between six countries: Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Since then, 22other members joined and a hugesingle market(also known as the 'internal' market) has been created and continues to develop towards its full potential.

What began as a purely economic union has evolved into an organization spanning policy areas, from climate, environment and health to external relations and security, justice and migration. A name change from the European Economic Community (EEC) to the European Union (EU) in 1993 reflected this.

The EU has delivered more than half a century of peace, stability and prosperity, helped raise living standards and launched a single European currency: the euro. More than 340 million EU citizens in 19 countries now use it as their currency and enjoy its benefits.

Thanks to the abolition of border controls between EU countries, people can travel freely throughout most of the continent. And it has become much easier to live, work and travel abroad in Europe. All EU citizens have the right and freedom to choose in which EU country they want to study, work or retire. Every member country must treat EU citizens in exactly the same way as its own citizens for employment, social security and tax purposes.

The EU's main economic engine is the single market. It enables most goods, services, money and people to move freely. The EU aims to develop this huge resource to other areas like energy, knowledge and capital markets to ensure that Europeans can draw the maximum benefit from it.

The EU remains focused on making its governing institutions more transparent and democratic. Decisions are taken as openly as possible and as closely as possible to the citizen.

More powers have been given to the directly elected European Parliament, while national parliaments play a greater role, working alongside the European institutions.

The EU is governed by the principle of representative democracy, with citizens directly represented at Union level in theEuropean Parliamentand Member States represented in theEuropean Counciland theCouncil of the EU.

European citizens are encouraged to contribute to the democratic life of the Union by giving their views on EU policies during their development or suggest improvements to existing laws and policies. The European citizens' initiative empowers citizens to have a greater say on EU policies that affect their lives. Citizens can also submit complaints and enquiries concerning the application of EU law.

The European Union is the largest trade block in the world. It is the world's biggest exporter of manufactured goods and services, and the biggest import market for over 100 countries.

Free trade among its members was one of the EU's founding principles. This is possible thanks to the single market. Beyond its borders, the EU is also committed to liberalising world trade.

The EU is committed to helping victims of man-made and natural disasters worldwide and supports over 120 million people each year. Collectively, the EU and its constituent countries are the world's leading donor of humanitarian aid.

The EU plays an important role in diplomacy and works to foster stability, security and prosperity, democracy, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law at international level.

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EUROPA - The EU in brief | European Union

The European Union says it's ready to retaliate against the U.S. over President Donald Trump's proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum with counter-measures against iconic U.S. products like Harley Davidson motorcycles, Levi's jeans and bourbon.

The EU threat and Trump's insistence that the tariffs will go ahead escalate the risk of a trade war, in which countries try to punish each other by increasing taxes on traded goods. In the end, that tends to hurt all sides as exporting producers suffer but so do consumers who face higher costs, experts say.

There was some hope that free trade proponents in the White House, like economic adviser Gary Cohn, would dissuade Trump from going ahead with the tariffs. But Cohn's resignation Tuesday dealt a blow to that expectation.

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said Wednesday that the EU is circulating among member states a list of U.S. goods to target with tariffs so that it can respond as quickly as possible.

The list is being finalized but so far includes U.S. steel and agricultural products, as well as other products like bourbon, peanut butter, cranberries and orange juice.

She did not say what level of tariffs the EU would set, leaving it unclear what the economic impact would be.

"This is basically a stupid process, the fact that we have to do this. But we have to do it," EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker had said Friday. "We can also do stupid."

The EU considers itself to be caught in the crossfire of this particular trade dispute, in which Trump has mainly singled out China for being unfair in its commercial deals.

Trump last week he said his government would levy penalties of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminum imports, but left it not clear whether trading partners like the EU and Canada would be exempt.

So the EU has moved ahead with preparations for the worst.

Malmstroem said that the EU, the world's biggest trading bloc, rejects Trump's reasoning that the tariffs are backed by the international legal right to protect national security.

"We cannot see how the European Union, friends and allies in NATO, can be a threat to international security in the U.S.," Malmstroem told reporters. "From what we understand, the motivation of the U.S. is an economic safeguard measure in disguise, not a national security measure."

The EU itself already has tariffs on many imports. But Malmstroem said Trump's motives in this case do not appear compatible with World Trade Organization rules and that this means the EU can activate safeguards to protect its own markets.

The WTO said Wednesday that, so far, 18 members including China, Australia, Brazil, the EU, India, Japan, Norway and Russia have expressed concerns about Trump's proposed tariffs.

At the origin of the problem is overproduction by China, which has flooded world markets with steel and aluminum, driving prices down and intensifying pressure on producers in the U.S. and Europe. Nearly half the steel produced globally in December, for example, came from Chinese mills, according to the World Steel Association. China accounted for more steel production than the United States, Russia, Japan and 28 countries of the EU combined.

But the U.S. has already thrown up barriers to Chinese imports. As a result, China ranks only 11th in steel and fourth in aluminum imports to the United States. Trump's tariffs appear far more likely to hurt a staunch ally, Canada, which is No. 1 in both supplies of steel and aluminum to the U.S.

EU Council President Donald Tusk, who chairs summits of presidents and prime ministers, said the bloc's leaders will discuss the issue at their next meeting on March 22-23.

He rejected Trump's assertion in a tweet that trade wars are good and easy to win. "The truth is quite the opposite: trade wars are bad and easy to lose," said Tusk.

Fragkiskos Filippaios, of the University of Kent's business school in England, says that the damage from a trade dispute will depend on whether the sides try to resolve their differences through the arbitration of the WTO, whose verdicts have so far always been accepted.

"Moving away from WTO dispute settlement means that retaliation can easily escalate and we might find ourselves in the middle of a trade war between the two most important trade regions in the world," he said.

Malmstroem urged Washington to work with the Europeans to address the root causes of oversupply in the global market.

She recalled that similar U.S. action on steel in 2002 by then president George W. Bush "cost thousands and thousands of U.S. jobs" and said she hoped that Washington has not forgotten this.

At that time, the EU compiled a list of items for retaliatory tariffs that included steel products, but also orange juice, apples, sunglasses, knitwear, motor boats and photocopying machines. It represented $2.2 billion in U.S. exports to the EU. Bush withdrew the steel tariffs and the list was never acted upon.

Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.

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European Union ready for a 'stupid' trade war if Trump slaps ...

Lorne Cook, The Associated Press Published 11:07 a.m. ET March 9, 2018

Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland said Thursday that she had been working with U.S. officials to work out the details of a steel and aluminum tariff exemption and will continue to work to make sure it isn't reversed. (March 8) AP

European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstroem speaks during a media conference at EU headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, March 7, 2018. The European Union will set out its strategy Wednesday on how to counter potential U.S. punitive tariffs on steel and aluminum.(Photo: Virginia Mayo, AP)

BRUSSELS The European Union is seeking clarity from Washington about whether the 28-nation bloc will be exempt from President Donald Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs, the EU's top trade official said Friday.

"We hope that we can get confirmation that the EU is excluded from this," EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem told policymakers, experts and reporters at an event in Brussels.

But she warned that if the issue can't be resolved bilaterally or through the World Trade Organization, then "we will have to protect our industry with rebalancing measures."

Trump announced Thursday that he was slapping tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminum, but he temporarily exempted big steel producers Canada and Mexico provided they agree to renegotiate a North American trade deal to his satisfaction.

He said other countries could be spared if they can convince the administration that their steel and aluminum exports don't threaten American industry.

Malmstroem will hold talks Saturday with U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer. The EU wants to find out exactly what mandate he has and precisely what conditions allow exemptions, but it is ruling out any negotiations for U.S. market access.

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The EU has warned that it stands ready to slap "rebalancing" tariffs on about 2.8 billion euros ($3.4 billion) worth of U.S. steel, agricultural and other products, like peanut butter, cranberries and orange juice.

"Everything you have for breakfast," Malmstroem said. She noted that under WTO rules, once Trump's tariffs come into force in two weeks, the EU would have 90 days to enact the measures.

The EU insists that it is committed to open, global trade, and that Trump's tariffs are a protective measure to prop up U.S. industry that could undermine the international trading system.

European Commission Vice-President Jyrki Tapani Katainen speaks during a media conference regarding steel tariffs at EU headquarters in Brussels on Friday, March 9, 2018. The European Union's top trade official Cecilia Malmstroem said Friday that the EU is still seeking clarity from Washington about whether the 28-nation bloc will be exempt from U.S. President Donald Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs.(Photo: Geert Vanden Wijngaert, AP)

European Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen said: "We all have to choose whether we want rules-based trade which supports rules-based world order or do we want rule of force, or the rule of the strongest, which we have now seen?"

Malmstroem said the real cause of the problem is an oversupply on global markets, and she rejected Trump's assertion that the tariffs are needed to protect U.S. national security, especially when most EU countries are members of NATO.

"We are friends. We are allies. We work together. We cannot possibly be a threat to national security in the U.S., so we are counting on being excluded," she said.

Europe's main steel federation said Trump's reasons for slapping tariffs on steel and aluminum are absurd and warned that the move could cost tens of thousands of jobs across the continent.

EUROFER chief Axel Eggert said "the national security justification the president has used - and the linking of these tariffs to NATO funding - is an absurdity."

The EU exported about 5.5 million tons of steel to the U.S. last year. European steel producers are concerned about a loss of market access, but also that steel from elsewhere will flood in.

"The loss of exports to the U.S., combined with an expected massive import surge in the EU could cost tens of thousands of jobs in the EU steel industry and related sectors," Eggert said.

President Donald Trump is suggesting that Australia and "other countries" may be exempted from steel and aluminum tariffs, along with Mexico and Canada. (March 8) AP

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European Union seeks clarity on whether it will be hit by US ...